Week 5 Link Up

Just a quick one this morning after the long post yesterday.

All caught up! And it feels so good. I am excited for Friday's clue as I will be able to stay home and sew, I've cleared the calendar and taking a me day, Hubby already knows he is cooking, i.e. bringing home take out!

.....and here they are anxiously awaiting the next step.

I love my colors.I am just hoping that they will produce the "pop" that Bonnie's quilts are famous for.

Wishing you all a prosperous, "pieceful" and Happy New Year!

Don't pass by the progress of the GIMQ on Bonnie's Link Up.

As Always,

Deb

Stash Report

Used this Week :82 yards
Used year to Date: 104 yards
Added this Week: 12 yards
Added Year to Date: 32 yards
Net Used for 2014: 72 yards

These numbers are actually my usage since the end of June as I have been an absentee blogger. I finished the year in the positive and that is the goal. 
I don't even remember which quilts I have shown and which I have not and some still don't have pictures, while some are waiting to be quilted and some are already in their new homes.
Been working on a Bible BOM Quilt Along using Patterns from History and here are some of those. We also have someone designing a few extra.

Completed Pat Sloan's "GlobeTrotting" Quilt Along Mystery. The true colors are the first pic. Pat will be starting another one in January 2015, Vacation Time and you can join!

A Quilt of Valor

A Supernova Swap with a new internet "friend". We had a great time and are looking forward to doing something together in 2015.

I am participating in a Farmer's Wife Pony Club. I will have to gather all the pics so far in another post. These are 8 inch blocks and we will swap for a year, there are 7, including me in our group. It is fun and challenging. We will make several blocks on our own but getting 6 blocks a month is quite the motivator to keep going!

Wendy Butler Berns was here for a Trunk Show and Workshop "Tweety in Love". Learned so much and so outside my box. Great techniques I will use again!

Working on blocks for local Hospice.

An original block for nephew's County Fair. I will be making it into a large wallhanging where he will be able to put his ribbons, pins, etc as he is now in college and cannot participate anymore.

Aurifil 2014 Designer Block of the Month. I was "sew" excited to do this as I would be using some hoarded fabric, all sewing related. Here is the 2015 Team and you can also get to past years on the page!

Here is the problem....I got so excited to finish in December that I forgot how I was putting it together. I slapped those borders on and called it a day although something was bothering me about the top.

 Fast forward several days, cleaning off the design wall to start a new project and what do I find? The inner border....and it will be going in. I ordered the fabric special for this quilt and it just does not look finished to me. And this will be my quilt to be used in the sewing room. So I will be frogging in January.

Other items completed:

Quilt(s) for Habitat for Humanity (House Dedication January 10th) I'll show you after that.

4 baby quilts

Quiltmaker Test Blocks

12 Mug Rugs

6 Tablerunners

I'm sure I am forgetting something....

Don't forget to check out the other Stash Reports at Judy's blog!

As Always,

Deb

Winner! and Clue 4

The *WINNER* of the Bonnie Hunter book "Adventures with Leaders and Enders" is Jean Belle. Please contact me with your snail mail and I will get it right out to you.

Keep checking back, there will be a new giveaway in 2 weeks!

Why are the last days before Christmas such a rush? You think you are prepared and then there are all the last minute details to attend to. In our case, packing up to travel and stay overnight this year so extra lists to get done because you can't just run to the cupboard, the sewing room or closet to grab it. Makes it so complicated. Plus, we are taking the "girls" with us. Lucy and Chloe (our Cairn Terriers) will be with us so it is like traveling with kids, lots of extras to keep them comfy and happy! They got bathed, new collars and trims so they look their best for the holidays.

I did get Clue 4 finished this past week. Thank you Bonnie for making it doable during the rush week for many of us. So without further ado, may I present.....

It took me a little bit longer to do these because of the placement of the pieces, I wanted to make sure they were assembled correctly. I had a bit of trouble last year with the 4 patches being turned in Celtic Solstice. Here's where I admit to the  world that I might have somewhat of a problem spatially. It is not a new problem, it just shows up more as I age. My DH always has to check my assembly process, I also have trouble folding a map or visualizing how an object goes together when they are presented in a test. I did each set separately so that did not happen. Wish me luck when we assemble this baby....

Here they are all together.

Someone on Quiltville's Open Studio FB page has figured out that we are 86% complete with the top. That was fun to know AND motivating. This will be a complete top in January!

I am still loving my colors and the fact that this is the scrappiest top I have ever done. I usually like more controlled coloring but I have let go and let it be what it wants to be. I put the different pieces in paper bags and just pulled from them. If it matched I would pull a second time(sometimes a third). If a third pull was made, only happened twice, I went with it. If the Quilt Police come after me when they find it in the quilt, I guess I will take my punishment of 50 lashes with a selvedge edge!

In other news, I caved. I love me some coffee although I always use a covered cup in the sewing room! This is my new purchase and no it is not the one being recalled.

I love it but.....they have now made them so that you may only use the "special" K Cups in it. So I spent several hours on You Tube learning how to over ride the "photo" button that reads the cup and now have a reusable K Cup to fill on my own! Kinda frugal that way, the money saved could be spent on fabric.

Not only did we get up to date in the coffee department but we also did some other updating....

Hubby's is on the left, The guys in the store laughed at it and one said that "his Dad had one like that when I was in Middle School". It's 10 years old and still working. He has even learned to text on it but can't even receive pics. His boss has the other guys submitting paperwork by phone but he still has to deliver hard copies every week. Mine is a bit newer but the battery is shot and the cost of a battery for it is not worth it. Now here is the issue, they are not sure if they can retrieve the info from mine but Hubby's is no problem, go figure!

I'll let you see next week what we got!

Best end this but don't forget to check GIMQ Link Up on Quilteville! There are going to be some amazing quilts come January.

I wish each and every one of you a blessed and peaceful holiday season.

As Always,

Deb

Giveaway and Link Up

*Check at bottom of post for the giveaway.*

I did finish Clue 3 this week, it literally became my therapy. 

Our community lost one our brightest stars this week and the daughter of some of our best friends. To the Flu. There are no words to express our pain at losing this borrowed angel. 
Shannon was 17, a Senior, healthy, bright, smart, a talented artist, had college plans in place and walked with faith. She was kind, well loved and was always the person to ask what she could do for someone else. We are so grateful that we had the privilege of knowing you in your short time on the earth. The world will be just a little darker without you here. 

Between cooking, running errands for the family and just sitting with them, I did retreat to the studio.

That being said, here is what got me through the hardest times this week. Sitting in the studio and just sewing.

I did not have very much of the greens( because I use them in many quilts) I wanted and so found myself stealing from other projects, charm packs and jelly rolls to get the variety I so craved. Guess I will have to go shopping now, bummer! lol I was determined to make this quilt from only stash and so far so good. I hope Bonnie would be proud.

Here they are all lined up and I am so happy with my choices and is it Friday yet? 

Now for the GIVEAWAY. If I get 25 comments on my blog by Thursday when the Linky closes, I will draw a random comment and the winner will receive this. 

This is from my personal library. When I asked for Bonnie books, apparently people listened and I have several of some of her books! Nice to know family listens. 

Let me know if you are doing Bonnie"s colors or if you strayed as I did.

I also got to "Pay it Forward" this week. On the Quiltville's Open Studio FB page, another quilter was looking for fabric that was no longer available. I knew I had it as I had auditioned it as one of my purples. It did not work for mine but it did for hers and popped it in the mail! ...and in digging for greens came across another piece of it, so in the mail it goes. So glad I could help another quilter!

While you are waiting make sure you check out all the wonderful hysteria for the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt on Bonnie's page! Right Here.... GIMQ Link Up. Amazing!

As Always,

Deb

Link Up and Giveaway!

Clue 2 finished. Feeling quite proud of myself. Big pat on the back. This is where I left it Friday. As you can see, I used method 3 and will at some point press and trim those little buggers.

And then on Sunday, while watching football and the Hallmark Channel this happened....

but not before I sewed the first one like this. I sewed the practice block perfectly and I still did it this way.

I also worked on my Aurifil BOM and finished December and decided to get the top together. I have been hoarding collecting sewing related fabrics for quite a while and last January decided to participate in this through Pat Sloan's blog/website. She is doing it again for 2015.

I kept thinking that it was DONE, yet something was off. After all I had been looking at some of these blocks for 11 months but I shrugged and set it aside. 2 days later, I was cleaning off my design wall and what do I find (yes, it was that full) but this:

Can you guess what it is? Yup, the inner border. Now normally, I would call it good and use it somewhere else BUT it is Pat Sloan's design, it goes with the theme of the quilt and this quilt is for me to live on my most comfortable chair in the studio. So take that big pat on the back and just toss it out the window. I will be taking the borders off and inserting it. I'll show it to you again after and you will agree it was worth it. It will always remind me of quilting along with Pat!

GIVEAWAY, I did mention that didn't I. Well it seems that some of my family and friends take me seriously when I ask for something. So I ended up with several of these. One is personalized (DH ordered that one for me) but here is one I will part with to a lucky reader. All you have to do is comment on this post and if I get 25 or more comments I will randomly draw a winner. If I don't get 25 comments, I will roll it over to the next week and try again.

Now to Link Up to the GIMQ, go to Bonnie's blog and see all the progress being made. I love seeing them all.

As Always,

Deb

A Reason to Blog

Dear poor, sadly neglected blog,

It has been a great summer and fall. We have enjoyed the weather, family and friends. Lots of sewing and quilting has gone on. You have fallen to the wayside and I am truly sorry about that. In future posts I will get caught up on all the activities but for now I  now have a reason to revive you. That's right, it is mystery time. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville has released the first clue of the Grand Illusion Quilt.

So without further ado, meet Clue 1. It is based on a hotel in Indianapolis that we visited years ago and I always remembered the purple door.

The other part of this is that I always use fabric from stash and  I will "Make it Work" as Tim Gunn would say. I am hoping that I can get through this without purchasing any fabric but I am just barely meeting the yardage so if I cut wrong or change my mind, a trip to the LQS (40 miles away) will have to be made.

Finished!

Make sure you check out all the others progress here at this post on Bonnie's blog and certainly go see the original inspiration from Bonnie.

Check back next Monday for my progress and a cool giveaway!

As Always,

Deb

Stash Report Week 26

Used this Week: 9 yards
Used year to Date: 31 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 8 yards
Net Used for 2014: 33 yards

Forgot about this one and it was so exciting. Back story: I was there when this young woman was born and she has always been dear to my heart so when this happened I knew we had to have a quilt to commemorate the event. I had been hoarding saving these fabrics to make myself a winter quilt but this was much more important and the perfect use.

She was named Aurora, Queen of the Snows for the St. Paul Winter Carnival 2014 and we held a reception in our hometown. She was looking at this:

an ice sculpture that was made in her likeness!

And then I got to give her this:

Me, Penny and Julie(Aurora's Mom) at the reception. We have been friends for over 30 years...alot of shared memories and now we are becoming Grandmas instead of young Moms. Love you girls!

Second Swap Supernova Block, it is so fun getting to know another Quilter whom I have never met. She lives in Texas.

These are BIG, unfinished 18".

Auril BOM so far:

Making them from sewing themed fabrics and it will be for me!

Gotta run,

As Always,

Deb

Make sure you check all the awesome talent over on Judy's site!