It's snowy outside....

But sunny inside... at least in my sewing room...

 Hello All,

Our February and into March was very snowy. We haven't seen this much snow in quite a few years. But now the rain has come and the snow is starting to melt. We had close to 2 ft at one time. Now we have a bunch of mud.

These fabrics are some of my very favorite, Sunkissed and Spring Chicken, both by Sweetwater. I just love the cheerfulness of the lines, the sherberty goodness :)

Those swirls are my favorite.

I'm also working on some sweet hearts.

The fabrics for the hearts comes from a jelly roll. The fabrics are vibrant in real life, more of a jeweled tone. The quilt is going to be a chain quilt.

And I'm working on this scrappy table runner.

Using a few of those jelly roll strips as sashing and border.

So while the rains come and go and the ground gets muddy and wet, I'll be in my sewing room, enjoying the Spring colors and flowers :)

Thank you for stopping by,

Dorian 

Things I'm working on

Hello Everyone,

I hope your January has gone well. Can you believe it's over already? The days are flying by. Our January was very wet, and we have lots of lovely snow on the mountain tops. So that is good news! Hopefully it will help keep things a little less dry this summer.

I have 3 different projects I'm working on right now. The first is this cute little mystery quilt we did on the QATW forum. It called for 3 fabrics, light, medium and dark. I chose these 3.

I've finished the top. It's only around 40 inches square. A fun little mystery. I do like chain quilts :)

As I did on the previous mystery from Cheryl at Meadow Mist designs, this next mystery I also saved the clues and then took them out a few weeks ago and started putting it together (Cheryl starts the mystery in the summer and it goes till the following Spring). This is the Melodic mystery. The layout clue comes out on Thursday, can't wait to see how this goes together :)

I've been wanting to use this beautiful rose fabric for awhile now. I know the pink is a little light, but I really wanted to use it and the blue. Its' a little subtle, but nice I think. I hope that Red isn't going to be overpowering.

And lastly, I pulled out a charm pack of my favorite line ever, Sunkissed by Sweetwater. My best quilty buddy, Pat at the Scrapatch, sent me a charm pack. She and I both love this line. 

I was very happy when Sweetwater came out with their line Spring chicken. As it uses the same beautiful sherbert colors as Sunkissed, along with the lovely gray. So I took out an almost full fat eighth
bundle of it. Along with some yardage and bits and pieces of Sunkissed.

I cut up everything I could into 5" squares, and then had to cut up some into 2.5" squares. So that I can make another Pat's Gems quilt. It's a pattern I designed to use up charm packs. This version I am making I am changing up just slightly, like I did for the one I made last year. You can see that version HERE.

I can't wait to see this one pieced. Those  cheery colors just make my day :)

So I am keeping myself busy, what with snow outside and cold wind blowing, it's best to stay indoors ;) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Dorian

Macaroon mystery and another project

                             UPDATED WITH FINISHED MACAROON TOP

 Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying whatever weather you are having. We are in our usual warm and lovely February weather. I do so hope we get a good, cold, wet Spring though (as we often do).

I've been having fun with my beautiful Sunkissed and Spring Chicken fabrics. Both by Sweetwater, I was sooo happy when they brought these gorgeous, fun colors back! I've added in a few tone on tone fabrics that are not by Sweetwater, as well.

This is for the Macaroon mystery by Meadow Mist Designs. My blocks are all together now.

 

These are the setting triangles. The pattern calls for 2 background fabrics, but I ran out of both of them, so chose another swirl for them.

And since my background is sooo busy (But I love all those swirls!) I am going with a more sedate greens for the sashings. Some are tone on tone, and some are from the Spring Chicken line (although I didn't take a picture of them).

I'm also working on a Jacob's ladder quilt with these fabrics.

Isn't this pretty? I've been wanting to use it in a quilt for a few years now. I know that I am going to put a 3 or 4 inch border on my Jacob's ladder quilt, as it's only 36" square. So I picked this for the border, and chose some matching fabrics for it. I am also using a bit of the black in the blocks as well.

The pattern I am using is from Quilts and More Fall of 2018 issue. The block is a simple pattern of 4 squares and HST's.   Here's my piles, I'm still sewing the HST's and have to press the 4 squares.

Here is what the block will look like. It's just 16 of these to make the quilt.

I don't know why I am adding to my 'to quilt' pile, when I have enough tops as it is, lol. But I sure do love piecing them :)

 

I am linking up to Pat's weekly linky party, thank you Pat :)

 

Have a great day, and thank you for stopping by.

  

Dorian 

 

Some projects for the New Year

 Hello Everyone,

 A happy new Year to you all. I hope the year has started off well for you.

I received some gift certificates for Christmas this year, to a few of my favorite fabric stores. So I was able to indulge :) Thank you again Carol!

Most of you who have been with me for years, know that my favorite fabric line ever was Sunkissed, by Sweetwater. I just love the soft colors of that line. So I was very thrilled when they came out with the Spring Chicken line last year. As the colors are the same as Sunkissed. So, I had to buy some :)

I am going to use it with these for the Meadow Mist mystery quilt. Cheryl does one clue a month, and it takes a year to get it done. I am too antzy for this, I like to do my mystery quilt clues all at the same time. So I am saving all the clues, and in March I'll get myself caught up, and then be ready for the final clue in April.

The swirly fabrics are going to be the background. Those two fabrics are pieces from Sunkissed that I have been hoarding! I plan on using some of Spring chicken, along with the other fabrics up there, mixing them up and doing a bit of scrappiness.

I've also been wanting to make a rag quilt this year. So I spent a GC on these flannels.

I saw a picture of a rag quilt that uses quilting cottons on the front and the flannel on the back. I liked that look, so I pulled a handful of florals (and discovered something astonishing.... I am running out of florals!! LOL, looks like I have to do more shopping).

These colors aren't exact, but I think they have the same feeling, mostly... and that is what I was shooting for.

I also pulled an old, old quilt top out of storage. I'm not quite sure when I made this top, I can't remember if I did it at the old house (which would be over 11 yrs ago) or if I made it after we moved into this house. But either way, I put it aside and have decided it now needs to be quilted up and sent to it's new owner. She's a special person and her quilt has been calling to me to get it done :)

The quilt design comes out of the Benni Harper quilt albumn. I love the combination of wedding ring and lone star. I really like the colors I used on this quilt. That blue with daisy's is one of my favorites :) So one of the GC's went to backing for this top.

So these projects will keep me busy for a little while at least. Especially since I often have little projects I am doing in between. Like a wall hanging for a swap we are doing on the forum.

So you all take care, thanks for dropping by and have a lovely day.

Dorian

A new project

Hello All,

While I'm waiting for fabric for my cornerstones quilts, I've been playing with some more scraps. I like to use strips when piecing, so tend to have a lot of various sized strip pieces left over. I save them and got them sorted awhile back.

Last year, I saw this post and knew I had to make one of these quilts, one day. Well, that one day is here... at least I'm getting a start on it.

I'm making the 9 patches, I'll need some this way..

And some this way...

I cut out my background fabric, some of these are left over strips from other projects, but much of it is just cut from yardage. Various Sunkissed pieces in gray.

I've gathered my colorful 1.5" strips, and started sewing them to the background pieces. One set is a row of colored pieces/gray/colored pieces and one set is gray/colored pieces/gray. It doesn't matter that my colored pieces are various lengths.

Then I trim the end and start cutting 1.5" strips from these sets.

When I come to the end of one piece, I just cut it out and continue on my way.

When the sets are all sewn together, I press them with the seams opposite each other. One set towards the middle strip, one set towards the outside strips, so that when I sew them together, they nestle nicely.

I have a lot of pressing and cutting to do...

The weather is gorgeous here this week :) So the kids are outside playing a lot.. which gives me time to head to the sewing room.

Have a great day all.

 Linking up with LeAnn.

WIP Wednesday, on Thursday..

Hello Everyone,

I've made a bit of progress on my disappearing 9patch project this week.

Here's most of my 9 patches, all trimmed and cut in half both horizontal and vertical (as that's what makes them 'disappear' if you didn't know). I love the swirly yellow (Sunkissed by Sweetwater) paired with the almost-solids.

And here are half of my flying geese... sigh~ only half, as I calculated wrong when first cutting them out. I love the gray check (Sunkissed by Sweetwater) mixed with the almost-solids, too.

When I was first cutting this project out, I calculated 4 geese per block. But I am supposed to use 8 geese per block!! And then, I decided I needed this quilt a bit bigger, so have to make 5 more blocks, which means another 20 geese on top of the 80 more I have to do. BLAH!

Buuuuttt, as much as I hate the trimming, don't these blocks all look fantastic! Trimmed and squared up just right :) and that makes the piecing together go much easier too, of course. So it's well worth it.... maybe by next week I can actually start putting the blocks together ;)

Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Lorna, thanks Lorna!

A new project

Hello All,

I hope my American friends had a great Fourth of July weekend. The heat wave we've been having has finally cooled some, we might even see a shower or two in the next few days. That would be good.

So, I started a new quilt top. I know, I need another quilt top like I need a hole in my head. But, well... you know ;) My son is making me a nice sewing table, and I am hoping to be able to use it to help me baste my quilt tops, so that I can really and truly start quilting them easier.

I designed this quilt quite a few months ago. My dh helped me pick out colors :) Then I bought this fat quarter bundle from Riley Blake, it's called Cotton Shades. And the colors are close enough to what my dh and I came up with, that I decided to use them for this project.

I didn't use the whole bundle, there are 4 pieces left over. These are all the ones, plus the backgrounds pieces, I am using.

The darker gray is Quilters Rose by STOF. Oh, thats the wrong yellow. I switched it out for some Sweetwater swirly yellow fabric from the Sunkissed line. The gray check is from the same line. You can see the swirly yellow I am using in the next picture.

Here's the disappearing nine patch block I'll be using.

And some flying geese.

I'll be doing a lot of trimming... sigh~ but, trimming makes the blocks go together better, right?! So trimming I'll be doing... after the blocks are sewn.

Have a great day!

Linking up with Lee and Lorna today. Thanks Ladies!

copyright © 2015

WIP Wednesday

Hello Everyone,

It's another Wednesday, they seem to get here so quickly, just where is the time going?

I have a teething baby, who is fussy and clingy, so I haven't been doing much sewing. But I did manage to whip these 18 windmill star blocks up.

Chain piecing, these come together soooo quickly!

I'm using my beloved Sunkissed as background and/or more windmill blocks.

 

I haven't decided yet, if I am going to keep the hexagon shape, or add background to make them squares. I'm just not sure how I want to lay them out yet.

These were made using Kona solids, in the architextures jelly roll. The background is Sunkissed by Sweetwater. 

Hooking up with Lee again. 

Oh look, Julie is showing off her versions of this block! (I used her hex n more ruler too.)

Have a great day!

Fabric shopping

  Hello All,

I hope you're enjoying some lovely Fall weather. It's beautiful here. Cool at night, warm in the day.

My shopping spree this week:

I bought this gorgeous FQ bundle of Chevrons from Fabric Worm. I  love the tone on tone colors. These are going into Isaiahs I spy quilt.

I am still in love with the Sunkissed fabric line by Sweetwater I found these on sale at Heirloom Patch, for only $6.99 a yard!! (If you decide to buy from this place, beware...the shipping is SLOW!)

 

I will be using the small pinstrip for Isaih's quilt.

And I think I'll pare up this gray with these lovely charms, Simply Color by Vanessa and Co. Which I got from Green Fairy quilts. She is still having a great sale on her precuts!

I think I am going to make another 4patch quilt, like this one. Only bigger. With the gray/Simply Color. And would like to know if anyone would be interested in doing a follow along?

Have a great day.

Sunshine Kisses is finished!

 Hello everyone,

I finished my lovely Sunshine Kisses quilt. Ohh, I just love it! So soft and warm and snuggly looking. The Sunkissed line by SweetWater is still one of my very favorites.

This is an original design, by me. I pieced it and quilted it too.
 .

 As you can see, I did straight line quilting, one row on each side of the major seam lines. To emphasis the 4 square patches.

 This is a darling size quilt. Just right for a toddler to have a picnic on, or maybe a tea party with lots of stuffed animals. It's also just the right size for the baby in your life. Measures 46"x46".

A few close ups of the quilting.

 

Here's a better view of the back. I took it before I had finished the quilt. I decided I didn't like the green on the edges, so exchange them for a gray.

I've decided to dip my feet in the selling waters around here, and see if I can make a go at making some Christmas money :)

 I don't have an Etsy store, or any other online store. I know there are quite a few out there, but I don't think I have enough stuff yet to get one.

If anyone is interested in my quilt, just send me an email/comment and I'll get back to you.

Have a great day!