Sew Sunshine

Table topper I made for my niece for Christmas. I didn't give it to her until recently so that is why I had to wait to show it off now.   New Ironing surface!!!!!! yeah...happy new year to me! :) Today my project was to try to clean up my sewing room a tiny bit. I moved my ironing board over to get into a corner and sure enough, stepped on the ironing board leg and the whole thing went over and everything on it went flying. So I told my husband I was going to Target to get the wire rack I had seen. Bonus it was on sale for $5 off!!  We had an old piece of particle board in the garage that I was saving just for this. It was left over from our shed we built a few years ago. I took out some old décor fabrics I had. I decided to go bright and springy and this piece was left from a display from a job I did once. So rack on sale, board free, fabric free! I used some old batting that was odd shaped and I added a piece of Insul-bright. Stapled that baby together and now I ha

  My niece with her Elsa/Anna pillow I made for sleeping over at the Grandparents house! Grandparents each received new pillow cases to match...can there be too much Frozen in your life? :)   and     her brand new baby brother mmm...new baby snuggles!     Mason jar pincushions from my moms stash of flour sack material. I made hexi flower tops and then divided up some of the buttons she had saved.  All the kids used to play with her button can which was an old canned ham container.  This was one of four I made so far.     Signing up for an online Friendship Block Swap and asking a fellow blogger, Jen,  from my same city to join in.  We both had fun making our quilt tops and then we     had fun meeting Luke Haynes together. :)     My first entry into the county fair since 4-H days.    Tried my hand at value design of my own.     Tried totally improv curvy leaf designs and lots of fmqing which you can't see well on

Finally getting around to posting my challenge piece. I struggled so much coming up with something I liked using these fabrics. I did get something done as you see, and I submitted it but alas it was not accepted.  I do think that I was a tiny bit disappointed but then again I have been really distracted from sewing because of a recent illness with my husband. So, I am just now pulling up my knee socks and moving forward. I call this "Spumoni Sunshine".  It is pretty small at 30" w x 28" l with spiral quilting.   I used the fat eights that were sent and a bit more of the yellow and white and then gray and black of the MM  solids.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...right?  So maybe next time. :) Linking up with WIP wed with Lee HERE and Let's Bee social with Lorna HERE

Long long ago...I used to blog! I think I have some catching up to do. I almost forgot about this quilt I quilted for our quilt guilds cuddle program. I took the top and the back home and just had to do some simple quilting and binding to finish this one up.   Not fancy but I am sure it will go to a good home. Feels good to get something finished.

   Do you make special coordinated labels for on your quilts?  any kind of label????   When I first started back into quilting I was making little tabs and writing info about the quilt on them sometimes. I usually always put the year it was finished on. Then I got kind of lazy and now I have quilts I don't have labeled....not even a hand written date. sigh..... So not much sewing going on here of late but I was just working on the back of my Micheal Miller pastel challenge and made some scraps into a label of a sort that I think will work. I will probably still hand write on it but at least it will have a permanent label. I think in the new year I am going to invest in some logo type labels that I can sew in the seams of my pieces. For now I am going to try to make scrappy labels before I forget about them. Best laid plans..... Happy Thanksgiving! Linking up with Lorna at Let's BeeSocial HERE and Lee at WIP Wed HERE

  This is my layout of the Friendship Supernova Swap blocks. I am not sure I have it right or if I like my scrappy border so I am letting is stew a bit. It might be better from a better camera angle but it is too too cold outside if you catch my drift? :) Half the blocks were made by my now friend Jennifer under the Juniper tree linking up with WIP Wed at Freshly Pieced HERE and Let's bee social with Lorna HERE

Yeah I have a finish!!  It feels like the end of a dry spell...maybe? This was a quilt I made for my modern guild challenge - Not afraid of solids. This is a pattern from Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine by Missy Shepler called "all about gray".  It measures approx. 48" x 58" I made one more block for the back and used this lovely feathery looking fabric in gray and greens. I think it fits with my title.   I straight lined the quilting after I did a few zig-zag outline stitches.     Linking up with Crazy mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and   HERE  

Guild meeting last night. Fun Fun Fun! We collected star blocks to assemble for the QuiltCon Charity Quilt . We picked four main colors and any size divisible by 4. We received a huge variety and 4 of us divided them up to take home and assemble. This is my section and I am going to work on filling in the blanks. I already added the little blue and snow wonky star and the half a paper pieced star. I will see what else I come up with.  Should be super fun to see what we end up with. Linking up with   HERE and Lee at Freshly Pieced WIP  

Today starts the voting for the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side. Voting runs from Nov 1 - 7 and winners announced on the 8th. HERE   so check it out! I entered "So Blue" a portrait of my mother in the Art category so please go see all the beautiful quilts and vote. This is the photo I used. It is an old photo booth photo and it measures about 1 1/2" by 2" and I turned it into a pixel quilt. Check out more on how I made this into a quilt HERE   Make sure you check out all the categories!  Thanks for stopping by.  

Not much action here but I wanted to experiment with some foundation piecing from our mini guild class last night. One of our members Suzanne gave us a quick class on foundation piecing her tree pattern. Three little cutie patootie trees! I love them. Maybe I will do more??? Linking up with WIP WEd at Freshly Pieced HERE and Let's Bee Social with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts HERE

I decided to enter the Festival again this year. I get so excited to see what everyone has made. Once I see the entries start rolling in I think I shouldn't enter but I have to say I am really proud of this piece. I am going to enter it in the Art category because to me it IS art! Portrait of my Mother at the Joslyn Art Museum "So Blue" approx. 40" x 50" We stopped to take a picture at the Memorial Gardens also. You can sort of see the grid quilting I did over the piece. I think it adds to the pixilation.   This garden has over 1200 different rose varieties. Too sunny that day but you can see some of the roses all around. One block finished of the partial eye. The pixels are sewn into 1" finished squares. Two rows finished! To see about some of the construction of this labor of love go HERE Linking up with the wonderful host of the Festival,  Amy from Amy's Creative Side  (in the Art Category) HERE  if you want to vot

  It was time to post about the last block of our Supernova Friendship Block swap a week ago....sigh (top two are mine, bottom two are Jens) I am just now getting around to posting the pic! My now, "good" friend Jennifer from Jennifer under the juniper tree  thankfully, has already posted our finished blocks. Proof, that yes indeed I had my block done AND we actually made extra blocks so that our quilts would be 12 blocks instead of 10.  Jen could not make herself put one of the blocks on the back. I agree! This was so fun and I am so thankful to have met up with Jen. Our sharing friendship question this month was on unexpected blessings in our lives. I have to say this experience with Jen has been that and more! You just never know what you might find in a neighborhood near you. Jen doesn't live very far from me so this has been a double blessing in disguise. I hope we do lots more quilting things after the quilts are done. Here we are at that Luke Haynes talk.