Mini Quilt Party!

Amylouwho is hosting a Mini Quilt Party!  I just happened to have made a mini quilt a while back ....

This hangs in my sewing room.  A few years ago (well, probably more than a few), my LQS offered a mini-quilt-of-the-month.  I think I picked up at least four.  So far, I've made this one (don't even ask how many BOMs I've got hanging around that aren't even started).  This one is from Jo Morton's book Small Quilts for Framing.  

It measures 13" x 13".  Here's a quarter next to one of the inner HSTs for scale.

 

 I recall I really enjoyed making this - I should pull out the others and give them a go!

You can see the links for all the Small Quilts over at Amylouwho's place!

Lilly Would Like to Thank the Academy...

Lilly and I were so excited when we found out that she won a Viewer's Choice award in the 2011 Pets on Quilts Show hosted by Sew Cal Gal!  This was her entry...

Lilly and her Max & Whiskers quilt...

I was also very thrilled to have won a prize in the contest from Sew Cal Gal herself!  My 2012 Pets on Quilts calendar just arrived (put together by Ms. Sew Cal Gal Darlene herself!!)  I know I will enjoy looking at all the pets and quilts next year!  Thanks again Darlene!!

A post about my Shop Hop spoils is coming. A fabulous time was had by all!

PMQG Charity Sewing Day

One Saturday in September, some members of the Philly Modern Quilt Guild got together to make quilts from the Jay McCaroll Habitat Challenge blocks guild members had made earlier in the summer.  We had a fun day and got a lot done!

Amanda captured our day in photographs (thanks Amanda for letting me "borrow" some of the photos)...

Laying out the blocks on the pool table...


Me making some sort of funny face while cutting (I am notorious for the funny face photos at guild meetings for some reason!)



Look - Monica's nails match the blue in the blocks - LOL

Some of what we accomplished by the end of the day...

Left to right - Monica, Andrew, Candi, me

I took one of the tops home to quilt...I was going to just do a meander, but saw the Curlz pantograph still on the table from the last quilt and thought it would look good so did that instead.  I think it worked out just fine!

Here's the back...

The rest of the quilt top were given out to members at our last meeting to finish up the quilting and then they will all be donated.  It was a lot of fun to see and work with all of the blocks and see the creativity of our members - everyone did a great job!

This weekend is the Fall Frenzy Shop Hop 2011 in our area.  I can't believe that I've never done a shop hop in all of my years of quilting, but this will be my first one!  A few of us from PMQG are car-pooling on Saturday and the plan is to hit about 6 of the shops that day.  I'll do the others that are near me on my own on Sunday and Monday.  That's a lot of shopping!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  While I'm sitting here waiting for the (maybe) three trick-or-treaters we usually get I thought I'd show this pumpkin wallhanging I recently made...

I actually made two.  One for me and one for my daughter-in-law's office (she says she's been getting compliments all week on it at work!)  I forgot to take a picture of hers, but her borders all match. 

Edited to add a photo of Raqhel's quilt (with the matching borders) that she kindly sent to me...

How lazy was I when I realized I didn't have enough to finish the top and bottom border for the second one and instead of taking off the two sides and going with a different fabric all around, I just used a different print on the top and bottom.  Oh well, it's going in the window and you won't be able to see it from the street (you know, that "galloping horse" thing - I  use it alot)

I did a buttonhole stitch in black around the applique and a meander in the background.  I think they came out really cute!

I found this fabric to back them with.  Must have been a Kenny's Flea Market Find, because I know I didn't buy this! 

I didn't get a chance to finish this guy before Halloween though...

He still needs to have the applique stitched and his borders put on.

I saw these cute patterns when I was desperately looking for the backing fabric for the red & white wedding quilt.  I couldn't resist buying it.  The pattern is from a line called "Seasonal Skinnies" from Ribbon Candy Quilt Company.

Not only were they quick and easy to make, but I made them all from stash!  I love that!

And, exciting news - Lilly won the prize for the "prettiest costume" at her camp Halloween party today.   She was Minnie Mouse ....this is from another Halloween, but it's the same costume and she doesn't really change much from year to year - LOLOL!

Don't eat too much candy!!

ALSO EDITED to add that we got NO trick-or-treaters this Halloween (guess who will be eating too much candy)!!

October?

Ha ha ha , very funny.  You can stop now...

Good thing it's not Halloween tonight!  There's at least two inches of slushy snow out there and it's still going strong!  Unbelievable.  Hopefully, this is not an indication of how the rest of winter is going to be.

Luckily, I had nowhere to go today and have been sewing for most of it. I thought I'd be able to get The Ghastlies top finished.  It's not to be.  This is as far as I got...

As has been par for the course for me lately, I ran out of fbric.  This is all I could eke out of the bramble fabric to surround the four cornerstone blocks ...

So, the two remaining borders will have to wait.  Luckily, I was able to find some more online (it's becoming a little hard to find, so good thing I found out I need more now!)

And, just for the record (and maybe this will make it feel a little  bit warmer), here's Going Beachin' all finished...

Going Beachin'

62"x74"

Started: 8/28/2011 Finished: 9/28/2011

Fabric: "Going Coastal" by Emily Herrick;  Pattern: "Beachin'" by Crazy Old Ladies

 

Now, I'm off to make some Brunswick Stew for dinner this cold, snowy October night!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For this Blogger's Quilt Festival (hosted by Amy's Creative Side - thanks Amy!), may I present...

Gray Rosegarden

This is one my favorite quilts, made back in 2007.  I was whizzing past some booths at the NJ Quilt Festival that year and saw these fabrics and did a double take and turned back.  Then I saw the quilt that went with the fabric - the man who ran the booth with his wife had designed the quilt (I was very impressed with him!).  (Unfortunately, I don't remember now what the name of their business is)  But, I scooped up the fabric and pattern immediately. 

So simple - just alternating snowball blocks and nine patches and two different fabrics, but in person the quilt almost glows.  I display this quilt in my living room during the winter months.

When it came to quilting it, I didn't want to ruin the effect of the fabrics by choosing the wrong color thread, so decided to go with a monofilment in smoke for the front and gray cotton for the back. Good thing you can see the quilting on the back because you certainly can't see it from the front! After all the custom work I did on this it doesn't even look like it's quilted until you turn it over!

As you can see, I did some feather medallions with a stipple in the middle and for the smaller medallions, I used a flower ruler to stitch around and then filled it with more stippling.

For the borders, I just did this scroll-type quilting.

It's almost time to put this one out again!

There are lots of links to some greats quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's place - click here!

Kenny's Flea Market Finds

Ken was on the hunt for Halloweeny-things last weekend and found this spooky fabric at one of the yard sales he stopped at - skulls, googly eyeballs and skeletons - our daughter loves it!  (When do they grow out of that - she's 22???)

He also found these 70s-inspired fabrics....

Just adding these to the stash - have absolutely no clue what to do with them.  Although the blue and pink tiny medallion fabric is kind of cute.

 Today, I'm furiously trying to finish up a couple of pumpkin wall hangings - one for me and one for my daughter-in-law.  I'd like to give it to her tomorrow so she has a week or so to enjoy it!

I'm also in the midst of making a butternut squash and apple soup.  I've never had butternut squash soup, but people rave over it and I found a recipe for it last week so thought I'd give it a try.  If it's a hit, I'll share!