Christmas in July blog hop!

Hello Everyone,

And welcome to my stop on the blog hop. A big thank you going out to Samm and Carol, for their great ideas, blog hops and cheering.

I love Christmas :) The snow, the Christmas carol's, the cookies, the joy on little kid faces...And there is some darling Christmas fabric out there too. But, for some reason, I just don't decorate for Christmas with FABRIC stuff!? So I had very little Christmas fabric in my stash.

 I dug out these fabrics that my quilting forum swapped a few years ago.

I made 3 stars and some strips of squares. And put together a quilt as you go (QAYG) table runner.

Here is how I did it.

First lay your backing right side down, and smooth your batting on top. Find the middle of your batting and mark it.  Put your middle block right on that mark. Centering it.

Lay your second piece right sides together with the first, and sew your 1/4" seam. You'll sew right thru the batting and backing, so that your blocks will not only be sewn together, but to the batting/backing as well.

Open up that second piece, smooth it out (or even iron it if you want) and lay your third piece, right side down, on top of the second piece. Sew, press open, repeat.

When you are done going one way, do the same thing going the other way. Until your blocks all all sewn down.

Then sew your bottom and top sashings and blocks the same way.

When you have all your blocks/sashings sewn on, you can trim and bind it. It's already quilted :) Or you can do some more quilting on the blocks.

I did some FMQing, I have to practice, a LOT! Still having some tension issues. I go to fast with the machine, then have to slow down, and slow down too much, then speed up again... And when I finally get the speed of the machine right, I have to figure out how fast to move the fabric thru with my hands. Sigh~

 I practiced doing some simple back and forth loopy things, and circles in all the little squares. Plus a little tree.

Made a star in each of the big blocks, and TRIED to sew straight lines along the seams. Dang that's hard!! lol

Then I trimmed and put my binding on.

(Forgive the poor photos. Our sky is filled with smoke from a fire up in Oregon!)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are getting some Christmas sewing done :)

Don't forget to check out the other lovely projects. Here's today's schedule.

August 2

Quilt Doodle Doodles

life, quilts and a cat too

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Ridge Top Quilts

Editha

Stitchin By the Lake

Quilts, Fabric and Thread Tales

Sew Many Yarns

Kwilty Pleasures

Kris Loves Fabric

52 Quilts in 52 Weeks

Robin’s Fabric Nest

 

July goal...FINISHED!

Good morning All,

It's a gorgeous morning out, the weather has cooled off, it was almost chilly over night :)

I got my July goal finished, just in time. Put the binding on yesterday.

But I can only show you a little bit of it. Until Aug 2nd. My July goal was to get my Christmas in July blog hop project complete. I blogged about it here. Decided to use some swap fabric I had, instead of buy some new Christmas fabric.

I hope you come back on the 2nd to see the rest the table runner. It's a quilt as you go (QAYG) design, and I show you the steps to take to do some QAYG yourself.

Have a great day!



 

WIP....Thursday

Hello Everyone,

I missed out on WIP Wednesday, but as I have only been posting once a week, I'm putting it up today. It's hot here, again, but it will cool off again next week. Between the heat and the baby, I just haven't been doing much sewing.

I did manage to get some of my windmills together.

It needs a good bout with the iron ;) I am not real happy with it, but I hope it will grow on me, as I add the rest of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news. I have entered my I Spy quilt in the weekly Show and Tell over at The Quilting Gallery.

Tomorrow, July 26th, you can go over to the Quilting Gallery and vote for your favorite "quilts for little people".

If you are coming over from the Quilting Gallery, I welcome you and hope you'll enjoy looking around. You can find out more about my I spy quilt here,and here

Enjoy all the lovely eye candy!

 

WIP Wednesday

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've had a nice, quilty week. The weather has been gorgeous here, but we are about to get hot again.

I finally decided on a layout for my windmills. At least, I have a plan...

The middle will be pieced like a traditional hexagon flower.

Then I want to create a small green 'pathway' going around it, and another round of windmills.

I don't know if it's going to work, or if I am going to have to place a round of green hexagon's for the path, like a traditional hex garden. We'll see..

I'm calling it Windmill's in the  garden ;)

Linking up with Lee again this week. Thanks Lee.

Have a great day.

WIP Wednesday

Howdy Folks,

Hope the extreme weather has settled down for everyone. It's gorgeous here! Upper 80s/low 90s with a nice breeze :)

I have been doing very little sewing lately. I need to buy some batting, so that I can start doing some quilting, but I also want to rearrange my sewing machine/table so that I have more room.

I have started on my Christmas in July blog hop project though! So that is good. I've gotten this far, but now need batting so that I can continue. It's going to be a quilt as you go project.

I dug these out today too. This is a mystery pattern from Jess at the Quilt and Needle. I think it's either one of last years, or the year before! I want to get it finished.

And I'm still trying to figure out how I want these fun windmills laid out. I've been letting it 'stew' in my head for awhile, and nothing has come to me yet.

It's been a lazy Summer :)

Have a great day!

Linking up with Lee.

 

Happenings and ALYOF goal setting

Hello Everyone,

I hope those in the West are staying cool. I hate these heat waves. LOL

First up, if you are a Quilt and Needle forum member, OR are a member of our Facebook site, it's time to vote for the Paint Chip Challenge. You have until July 5th. And let me tell you, there is 13 gorgeous projects, and you can only vote once! It's a hard choice.

Secondly, here is my oldest sons finished quilt top. He loves it :)

 He is passionate about Trains, so I have called it Train Stop. He also is a math whiz, so those geometric shapes are right up his alley.

I love the gray graduate strips. They are from V & Co's Simply Color line.

And third, my goal for July is to get my Christmas in July blog hop project started and completed! I have to have it done by August 2nd, which is my day on the blog hop......

I don't even have my fabric yet! So can't even show you a picture of that. lol.

Have a great day!

 

PCC Finished!!

Hello Everyone!

It's almost deadline time in our Paint Chip Challenge on the Q&N forum. Once Cindy has all the pictures of the participate's projects, she'll compile them and make a poll so you can vote for your FAVORITE one. The criteria is that the project has to use the paint chips 3 colors as it's focus fabric. The voting will go on till July  5th. You will also be able to vote on our Facebook site.

Sooooo.... here is my project! Along with my paint chip. These colors are VERY outside my box.

 I love the bits of pink and red.

I love this border :)

I did a more dense quilting than I usually do.

And I have been practicing my FMQing.

Come on over and enjoy the eye candy. I'll let you know when you the poll is up to vote.

* Linking up with Alyce from Blossom Heart quilts today. Thank you Alyce!

* This is also my June finish for ALYOF, woohooo! Thanks Shanna and Melissa!


 

Quilting practice

Hello Everyone,

Do you have good weekend plans? We are going to enjoy another day or two of sunshine, then get some much needed rain. Rainy days are good days for practicing the quilting...if baby allows that is ;)

I've been getting my Paint Chip Challenge project finished up. It just needs the binding. I have 7 more days, so I best get it done!

I love my walking foot! This is the most dense quilting I've done.

I've also been working on my FMQing.

I wish the back looked as good.... I know, practice, practice! LOL.

I did discover that my machine much prefers me quilting with the feed dogs up. So that helped, once I figured it out.

This is something I want to start practicing a lot, as I really like it!!

Have a great day all!

 

WIP Wednesday

Hello Everyone,

I hope your days are bright and sunny. It's been beautiful weather here. Warm with a cool breeze for the most part. Perfect!

My young man's quilt is coming along nicely.

These hexagons and triangles are HUGE. The quilt is going to finish at around 67"x84" or something like that. He's a big boy ;)

 
I just have to sew my rows together, then the top will be done.

Son is very happy with it, he says he loves the geometric designs :)

I used Julie's hex n more ruler, what a great tool!

Linking up with Lee. Thanks Lee!

Kate Spain blog hop

Howdy Folks,

Have you been following the Kate Spain blog hop put on by Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts? Lots of lovely projects out there using Kate Spain fabrics. And lots of great prizes too.

Today, Alyce is having  a linky party for showing off what you have made with any KS fabrics.

For me, I love her Terrain line. The white print on my diaper bag is my very favorite.

I also made a baby carrier from this print.

Central Park is also a favorite of mine. I had a mini charm pack at one point and made this quilt with it, a mini of Lovely and some stash fabric.

Thanks for the great blog hop Alyce!