Free to Good Home…

I saw this sweet little wall quilt (made out of wool) hanging in a quilt shop during my journey down south.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  The Quilt Shop was selling the pattern and the kit…. but LUCKY US~ We can get the pattern FREE…right HERE!

With projects like this one being offered for FREE, who needs to go shopping!!  You got to love that!!  This little quilt would also look great done up with cotton applique!!  SEW get busy!

What’s with ME?…I seem to be on a FREE kick!!  Just think of all the money that I have saved in the last couple of days collecting FREE stuff…Seems to me, it must be time to go to a Quilt Shop!

Last but not least… Thanks to “Anonymous Commenter” for referring a wonderful Applique Quilting Blog!!  If you will notice Sandra’s Snippets has been added to my side bar.  Sandra’s appliques are award winners by themselves but she kicks it up a notch by adding embroidery to her work!!  Just stunning!  Well worth the time to peruse her blog!!  We are SEW lucky to have such talent and inspiration right ‘in our backyards’!

Have a marvellous Monday and Happy Quilting!!

FREE…is good!

FREE is always good especially when it is something you want!  Quiltmania Magazine is having a FREE Block of the Month Give Away and the first block looks VERY sweet!!

Here it is~

There is nothing like a little lamb and a snowman wrapped in a quilt to melt the hearts of a quilter…unless of course you are experiencing a snow storm right now and you have been snowed in for months!? 

What do you think? Do you want?  If so then hurry over to Quiltmania for your first month download.

I know…I know…you are getting SICK of seeing my baskets…but they are SEW stinking cute…7 done…3 more waiting patiently to be stitched…

The verdict is IN….I LOVE applique!!  Bring it on!!

Our friends from home, Sandy (the Bead Lady) and her husband Garry are suppose to be arriving at The Sands at the end of the month…the desert winds have started to BLOW so they must be close!! haha…

Seriously we haven’t had wind in three weeks and man is it blowing this morning!!  HANG ONTO THOSE BASKETS…..

Have a SUPER Sunday and Happy Quilting!!

Guilt free…?

There was no stitching for me yesterday…I had laundry to do…AGAIN!  What’s with all the dirty clothes!??  Sheeesh!! I guess at home I don’t really notice ‘doing’ laundry…I just do it in between ‘things’.  So while the clothes were going through the different cycles I started a book…and couldn’t get my nose out of it!  I spent the rest of the day in a lawn chair reading….Now back home I would NEVER do this…guess this is what “holidaying” is all about!!  Guilt free…doing WHATEVER you want to do…within reason of course!

I even took yesterday off from Blogging!!  Let’s blame it on the Yoga…I have to be there by 8:15am and I was too tired the night to write my post…

Let’s get back to quilting~ The Clubhouse was a hive of activity on Wednesday…Gwen has completely finished…

  

her wall hanging…she is having it professionally quilted when she gets home.  I wasn’t able to get the name or the designer for you as Gwen didn’t bring the pattern with her…sorry!  But one things for sure, it is SPECTACULAR!!

Isn’t this pretty?  I think Anne from Alberta made this….

She also made this one…Anne is one busy quilter and LOVES batiks.

Anne flew home for a funeral and brought back a bunch of her quilts… we just found out that we are having a quilt show in the main clubhouse in February!  Got to get busy!!

Penny started off making herself a table runner for Spring and ended up…

..making two more for her DILs!  Lucky them!

Roxanne is making these sweet little blocks for a quilt for her grand daughter…she is going to love it!

The new girl, Peggy is just starting this quilt…looking good!

Gina is whipping up aprons left, right and centre….

Gwen is ‘hoping’ for a Grand Child…SOON!!  She is making some baby quilts just in case….

And look at what Penny started to do…she hauled the Clubhouse Light Box out and is tracing her stitchery pattern onto cotton…she will probably have it finished by next Wednesday!

While we were busy working…the UPS man dropped this off for ME!!  How sweet of him!!

I had ordered 3 yards of black wool  and a yard of brown for my Settler’s Pride Quilt!  I was thrilled with the wool…the PERFECT weight!!  Not too heavy and not too light…JUST RIGHT!! 

And Goldilocks lived happily ever after!! 

(I ordered the wool from Dorr’s Wool…it’s called Wool Coating- perfect for Penny Rugs and runners…and a great price!  Check it out!)

Have a Super Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P

One Stitch at a Time…

You bloggers are the BEST!  Yesterday I wrote about taking the Hand Applique plunge and I got tons of feedback from you…lots of encouragement and tips and questions and even a virgin joke that had me chuckling!!  A few even asked for a tutorial!!  WHAT??  You should be asking an expert stitcher like Karen from Log Cabin Blog for a tutorial, not someone struggling with the process!!

Then I got an email from Paula the Quilter!  She referred me to Erin of  One Piece at a Time!  Yahoooo…now we are talking!!  Erin is an expert at applique …and what’s even better- Erin likes to share her talent!!  She has a put together a series of videos on the ‘starch’ method.  Erin has kicked it up a notch…instead of using freezer paper she uses a product called Templar.  It’s a see through plastic product that you can iron on…meaning after you have your stencil cut out it is permanent!  It won’t fray, crease or warp like paper. 

If you are starting to applique or want to try a new method, than hurry over to One Piece at a Time.  Erin has gone to a lot of work to educate us…AND WE THANK HER!!  What did we EVER do before the internet??  For one thing…life sure wasn’t this much fun!! haha

I have to include at least one or two pictures…here’s a shot of the desert cities…taken from Highway 74…a twisty, turny road that is definitely not suitable for doing any stitching on!!  Yikes!!

And when we got home it was bath time for the mutts…Molly’s face says it all….

Whereas Rylie showed me!…She rolled in the dirt immediately after her bath…Ahhhh…now here is a dog who appreciates camping and the finer things in life!!

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!!~P

My Week of Applique…

Last week at this time, I was an applique virgin.  Yes, I was…OH I had done a lot of machine applique…but never the REAL thing…NO not me!!  So last Wednesday at Quilting in the Clubhouse I took the plunge and did the dirty deed…!

I did four different applique techniques before I found the moves that were just RIGHT for me.

I started with the traditional needle turn applique where you baste down the shape and needle turn as you go…it was good but the corners were tricky…(I guess I’m not as flexible as I once was..)

I moved to fusing freezer paper on the back and tuning the edge as you go and then pulling the paper through the last little space…(hmmm…getting more enjoyable….)

Then I fused light weight interfacing, cut in the shape and used as a template, turning the edge as I stitched…the act of applique was getting more enjoyable…(practice…practice…practice)

Finally on block 4 I fused TWO layers of freezer paper together then fused it to the back of the fabric and used spray starch to to adhere the edges down….(I heard music and saw fireworks!!)  I have found my technique!!

My technique is messy~ AND I had to go and buy a little iron and a can of spray starch…but a small price to pay for satisfaction….  Besides I had a JoAnne’s coupon!

And be warned…this technique is not for the faint of heart…I had a burn within 10 seconds of beginning….NOT to mention a bad cut from the metal serrated edge of the freezer paper…but I just call them battle wounds and wear them with pride!  Notice the labelling…YIKES!  I guess they DO put them there for a reason!

So there you have it!  They are looking a little primitive…

…but sweet none the less!  The little middle squares still need to go on each basket.  I will do that when I get REALLY good at corners.

Only 294 to go!!  Sure hope I live to a nice ripe age!! haha

Have a wickedly wild Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Off to Quartzsite…

Yesterday morning we left bright and early for a day trip to Quartzsite, Arizona…Now last time we went we swore that we would never return!  It’s hot, dirty, dusty, with millions of people and thousands of vendors selling stuff you REALLY don’t need…and not a quilt or fat quarter in sight!!

For instance….

Tortillas warmers…you can never have too many of these…

Or singing wooden Frogs…

Beads…(now the first time we went to Quartzsite I was into Beading so I loved these booths….)  This year I didn’t even wander through ...a girl has to know where her priorities lie!!

 

And rocks…or rather gems….tents after tents of rocks!

AND then there is the BIG tent…full of all kinds of RV gadget…get me out of here!!

But we bought what we came for…two RV outside chairs, an outdoor mat and a collapsible rake….and a new vow never to return…haha!

It was a two hour drive there and 2 hours back, so the GOOD NEWS is I got another block of Summertime done!!  What ONLY half way way done!!  Let me re-word that…Yes, and I’m already half way done!!

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!!~P

Heart to Hand’s Autumn Quilt…

..STOPPED me in my tracks…SEW beautiful!!  No, that’s an understatement…STUNNING! 

Yes, I am still dwwwwelllllling on the Road to California Quilt Show….BUT I have reason to dwell…there was just too much to take in the first go round.  Besides I have all these beautiful photos to share!

Back to the Autumn Quilt!  Yes, I bought the pattern…how could I NOT!!  This quilt is big…and it was hanging on the front of Heart to Hand’s booth, which prevented me from getting a full shot of it.  All these darn people kept standing in front…sheesh…don’t they REALIZE that I have a BLOG to write!!

I showed you this picture yesterday and I heard you say…yeah…it’s OK…

NOW let me show you the REAL thing…I want to change your mind…

Tah dah…

Huh? … Huh?…

Gorgeous or what?  Wool sewn onto textured brown cottons – most of the background fabric is Japanese fabrics.

SEW…what do you think?  Are you still saying it’s just OK?

See what my eye is on for next year…Yup, it’s the Garden Quilt!!  It too is STUNNINGLY beautiful!!  Which mean….

I better get busy on the Autumn Quilt!!…Oh and the Christmas Quilt from LAST year!!  Yikes! 

Today we are off to the RV show at Quartzsite, Arizona.  It’s only a two hour drive and is always good for a walk about!  Lots of people and lots to look at.  I’ll be sure to take my camera…

Have a marvellous Monday and Happy Quilting!~P