Show & Tell Tuesday - x & + Quilt

While at the Round Bobbin the other weekend for our guild's sew day, I spied an "x & +" quilt sample made with Comma by Zen Chic and loved it.  I knew I had the pattern (the Japanese x & + block having having been a guild swap last year some time).  And, I knew I had this stack of leftover Comma fabrics from the It's a Plus quilt I made last year... 

There was enough for at least a wall hanging-sized quilt.  When I went home, I pulled out this gray for the background/borders...

and couldn't resist putting everything else on hold while I made a few blocks to see what they would look like!

And now I can add yet another project to the WIP pile!!

I'm linking up to Randi's Show & Tell Tuesdays.

Sunday Stash #2

Last Sunday, I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with some of my guild peeps (or as friend Bobbi put it so well afterwards - My Tribe - I LOVE that!) at The Round Bobbin.

Well, you can't go to a sew day at the quilt shop and not imbibe in some stash enhancement...particularly when a) there's a President's Day Sale going on and b) you have a $50 Gift Certificate burning a hole in your pocket!  I made good use of both.

First up (clockwise from top) ... I couldn't resist this gray Collage Scratch in Charcoal, I got a couple of yards of that, and a yard each of this Paris News Linen and the little flowers from the Mama Said Sew line...

I found these on the sale rack (from left to right)...Some Comma News print, and Jacks from Dress Up Days (from Doohickey Designs) and Super Star Paisley (from Riley Blake) (those last two were all about fabric envy, Bobbi had gotten some cut and I couldn't resist!)

The shop had this new Flatter spray in the Yuzu scent at one of the ironing boards.  I have no idea what Yuzu is, but it smelled SO good I couldn't resist buying a bottle.

All of this and I only went $6 over my certificate!

This isn't stash, but I had to share....this was dessert tonight....

Stuffed Strawberries!  These were all gobbled up within minutes.  You can find this amazing - and easy - recipe here at Best Bites.

I'm linking up again to Sunday Stash hosted by Molli Sparkles.

Show & Tell Tuesdays - a Winter Wallhanging

This wall hanging was supposed to be finished a year ago.....

Last year I saw this winter wallhanging in this issue of The Quilt Life and thought it would be a perfect wall hanging for my daughter-in-law for her birthday.

I gathered the bits and pieces needed from around the internet (sparkly flannel, silvery threads, silver and iridescent large rick rack).  Some of those things were hard to find!  And, then everything sat...until early January 2014.  Since DIL's B-day is February 4th, I needed to get a move on - and so I did and finished by the big day.  All of the fabrics came from stash.

This quilt required a lot of fiddely work.  Most was fun.  Some was not.  Couching many lines of silvery thread was fun...for the first 5.  Then it was just boring.  Luckily, it came out nicely.

Cutting out the snowflakes from the sparkly felt...big huge pain in the butt....but they look nice!

Hand sewing sequins and beads - tons of fun.  I really enjoyed that part! Aren't these little silver snowflake sequins adorable??

More sequins and beads on the large rick rack...

And, I was so glad (NOT!) the weather cooperated so I could photograph the winter wallhanging on snow...

All the work was worth it because my daughter-in-law was thrilled with her gift.  I have enough of the bits and pieces to make another....and after the pain subsides I might just do that.  Next year.

I'm linking up again with Randi for Show & Tell Tuesdays.

Sunday Stash #1

While making my rounds this morning on the Internet, I saw my bloggy friend Charlotte, better known in blogland as Grammie Q posted a Sunday stash and since I just got some nice stash additions, I thought I'd join in.

On Thursday, while still working from home during the "Ice Days" last week, my friend Cathy texted me to see if I wanted to go to Sew Smart, a favorite LQS.  Even though I was working, I do get a lunch hour and I felt it was our civic duty to patronize a shop that did have power.  Besides, I had a coupon burning a hole in my purse!

I  saw a sample of Abbey Lane Quilts' Lucille Bag made up at the shop and it was just about the cutest bag I ever saw.  It looked easy enough for even a novice bag maker like me so I picked up these three pieces to make it...this floral called "Mocca" from Alexander Henry Fabrics for the outside of bag, the zig-zag stripe from Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew line (love that line!) for the inside, and the Garden Pindot in black/white from Michael Miller for the side ties and handles.  Can't wait to carry this around!

Since I had the coupon (spend $60 to get $10 off), I supplemented with this adorable stack of Riley Blake tone-on-tone Cotton Dots in Medium....

 I'm not sure if I want to use them all together or just add them to stash by color...

Then, I found this in the skinny bolt clearance bin for 50% off...I can never resist a good Basic Gray Grunge!!

Not a bad haul!  You can check out the other Sunday Stash posts here.

Ice Day!

Today wasn't a snow day (that was Monday), but an Ice Day!

This thick coating of ice was on everything....

And the icicles on all of the power lines have been bringing them down all over...and creating spectacular light shows as transformers blew...

And the ice on the trees have been bringing them down all over the area too...

When you walk outside it's quiet except for the crackling sound of the ice and snow coming off the trees.  Very surreal.

My office has been without power all day as has hubby's.  Many friends are without also.  They're not sure when the power will be restored.

We have been very, very lucky here...so far.  We have power and since I really couldn't do any work from home today I used my "ice day" to...what else?  Sew!

I'll have my Ladies of Downton Abbey quilt top done before bed tonight!

Winter...you can stop now!!