One Piece at a Time

This Made Me Cry

 

 

The contest is still going, I just HAD to share this with you

Announcing Miss Kelly

 

First I want to give ANOTHER great big THANK YOU to Kimberly Jolly from the Fat Quarter Shop for the Happy Fabric. It is so yummy.

Well, here it is friends…Miss Kelly

This is the center block for my 2011 BOM called My Tweets. If you missed the announcement about My Tweets you can find it here.

Miss Kelly is named for my sweet niece Kelly.

If you don’t know this already all my patterns are named for special people in my life. Miss Hannah is my daughter and she appropriately came up with this naming scheme. I’m currently makinf my way through my nieces so look for Miss Nora next week. I’ll give you a hint, you’ve seen her pattern before…it’s the center block from Bluebird’s Piece O’Cake.  Yipee I finally got it finished.

Ooops I almost forgot. I’m giving away a free copy of Miss Kelly this weekend. Just leave a comment telling us what your favorite cookie (it’s baking season here) is and I will pick a winner using the handy dandy random number generator on Monday.

Happy Weekend !

Raspberry Limeade: My Challenge One Entry

Well, I finished it and I have the sore bleeding fingers to prove it. This is my entry for challenge one in the McCall’s Design Star contest.

One of the hardest parts about this quilt was deciding on the borders. I really liked it when it looked like this.

But I felt it needed more since it was a contest. So, I went ahead and added two more borders. I wasn’t too sure I liked it with the three borders but it kind of grew on me after a while. What I really liked is that the quilt worked both ways. I think it would make a good pattern because you can make it with one border and have a wall hanging and with three borders for a nice lap quilt.

For my color scheme I decided to give in to my urge to use pink in a big way. I am particularly happy with the striped fabric and I have just enough to use for a binding.

I think all the quilts are up on the McCall’s website. From what previews I have had I think there is going to be a bunch of great quilts from this round. I’ve also gotten to know some of the other contestants albeit virtually. All I have to say is that QUILTERS ARE THE NICEST PEOPLE!

Love you guys!

Maybe I should Change the Name to Manic Quilt Blogger

I know, I know...it's my third post of the day...maybe I have had a little TOO much caffiene.

The number one question I get asked here is about my fabric selections. For next years BOM I am using the "Happy" fabric line from Moda and Me and My Sister Designs. This fabric just came out so there is plenty available at The Fat Quarter Shop. I am also using some other fabrics from the same designers that coordinate well. To make things easy for those of you that want to use that fabric I have made a list of everything I have ordered so far. You can download it here. Unless otherwise noted I have ordered half yards.I will also be pulling fabric from my stash for this quilt but it will all coordinate with the Happy fabric. The purple I used for the birds in Miss Kelly (the BOM center block) is from Maywood Studio, it's one of thier Shadowplay fabrics and I can't find the number (sorry). I'm sure there are plenty of tone on tone purples that will work.

Another Note, if you are using Miss Kelly for the BOM you will need a larger background square than is stated in the pattern. A 34" square should work great.

I know this BOM isn't starting until January but I wanted people to get the fabric while it was still available.

Ok, OK I'll go away now. Maybe I should have a glass of wine instead of an iced tea.

McCall's Design Star Voting

Hi everyone. The quilts from Challenge One are up. There are some real stunners (is that a word?)

You can vote for your favorite by going here. I have a "Vote For Me" button on the right side of the blog.

Check back tomorrow for more on my entry.

Fish Frenzy

 

I want to send out another big THANK YOU to the folks at The Quilt Show. My quilt Fish Frenzy was the quilt of the day last Friday. I love this quilt for a lot of reasons. First, this was the first thing I ever designed myself. Second, it was my first award winner and it kind of got me hooked on the whole quilt contest thing. Mostly I love it because it’s fun and bright and my daughter still (she’s almost 18) sleeps with it.

When I saw it on the daily blog at The Quilt Show it dawned on me. Why have I never published that pattern? Because I’m a little dense, let’s just face it OK?

Then I was browsing The Fat Quarter Shop when I saw the new fabric line Fresh Mixerz. This fabric would be perfect for this quilt, I mean BETTER than perfect. So, I’m off to dig up those patterns and write directions. Look for the pattern sometime in the next few weeks.

I think I'm going to have to make another one for myself.

A Blog Award

Elzaan, a blog reader from Mauritius and writter of the blog Huisvlyt recently sent me this lovely, lovely blog award. The deal is that I have to tell seven things about myself and pass it on to other blogs that influence me.

First I want to thank Elzaan for passing this award on to me. To tell the truth I had to look up Mauritius on the map because I’m a little stupid when it comes to geography (it was my only D in school). Do you know where Mauritius is?

Also, I’m sorry Elzaan that it took me this long to get this up; I still can hardly believe that people actually read my blog let alone give me awards.

So here are seven things about me:

1.       I’m a huge tennis fan. I’ve even been to Wimbledon.

2.       I live in fear of someone nominating me for “What not to Wear”

3.       I rode my bike almost completely around Scotland to impress a guy (it worked, I married him 20 years ago and we are still married)

4.       I have to dye my eyebrows or else they are invisible and I am allergic to most make-up

5.       I grew early and was taller than every teacher in my school by the time I was in 5^th grade, even the male teachers

6.       I love cookies

7.       I have an almost irresistible urge to touch quilts when I see them, I’m very nervous at quilt shows because of this

Now for blogs that I find inspirational:

1.       All about Appliqué by Kay Mackenzie. This blog has just about anything you could want to know about appliqué on it. She also has some amazing resources on there as well.

2.       The Dedicated Appliquist by Penny Tucker. This is another to die for blog about all things appliqué. She describes herself as “legally addicted to appliqué”. I’m sure many of us can relate.

3.       Ivory Spring by Wendy Sheppard. I’ve gotten to know Wendy recently and we are kindred spirits. We are both former engineers and Jane Austen fanatics as well as quilters. She has some absolutely gorgeous quilting on her site. Be sure to check out her “Thread Talk” section.

4.       Heather Thomas. Heather is a teacher here in Colorado and a wealth of inspiration. She teaches a yearlong class called “The Language of Color and Design” that I and almost all my friends have taken and loved. She also has a wonderful book on fabric embellishing that you can find here. Be sure to check out her machine quilting patterns. Many of these are perfect filler stitching for appliqué.

Ok, OK ...I'm Impatient

I couldn't constrain myself any longer. I got things done much faster than I thought and I have posted these two patterns in my shop. The official announcements, complete with a give-away, will go up this Friday and this coming Monday but I was too excited not to share them with you.

So stop on by my shop (see button at left "Visit My Shop")

The WINNER is

Mary on Lake Pulaski who has a wonderful blog at

http://maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com

Mary, your e-mail is on the way.

By far the wierdest hand cream was Preparation H...eeewwwww!

For Moms and kids...everywhere

I will announce the winner later today so while you wait enjoy this.

I would only add....pick up your dirty socks