Hello! This week I am a little mouse tagging along in the coat pocket of my friend and mentor, Lynn, from Thimblemouse and Spouse. I stopped by to say, "Hello" at their shop, Country Crossroad, and was immediately sucked in by the new fabric from Quilting Treasures! I knew I wasn't signed up for the blog hop, but I had to make something out of the She Who Sews fabric anyway. Lynn spoke with our fearless leader, Madam Samm, who said it would it would be okay if I snuck in through the back door to show you my teensy project.

I spent the first evening on the tabs. There are four layers on these tabs, the yellow rulers, the red, the black and then the fussy-cut little dolls! I made eight, but only needed four.

Next came the panel, which I quilted and added .... can you see what I added? Yes, I added three borders, black, pin cushion and ruler, but there is more....can you see it?

 I added clear pockets! Look!

The other little thing I did was pad and cover my corkboard.....

So, in the end, it was soooo much fun! I love seeing what everyone else is posting! You all are rock stars!

Would someone please help me with photos??! I am hopeless!

Welcome to Day 10 - Wake up to KONA!

Welcome to my very young blog page! I am excited and nervous to be posting for the first time with this group of quilters. I have followed all the wonderful challenges of Madame Samm and her fantastic cheerleaders for almost a year. Thanks to the encouragement of my mentor, Lynn, from Thimblemouse & Spouse, I decided to jump in and challenge myself to put something I have created out there for others to see. 

What is funny about accepting this challenge is that I did not have any solid fabrics other than a piece of black left over from my Africa quilt! Seriously! I had to go out and spend $64 on solids.

The first thing I did was go out and purchase the sunset KONA charm pack. I LOVED the vibrant saturated color. 

I haven't ever made a quilt or ANYTHING with just solids, BUT this is supposed to be a challenge isn't it? So, I decided to take it on. 

Four years ago I made a baby quilt for my next door neighbor. The room was decorated in a fairy motif and so I started searching and found the paintings of Philip Straub. Hence, the quilt below.....

Now, I know you are thinking, this is an Edith Bunker story and you are right! But, this is my two minutes of fame so......I decided maybe I would repeat Cassidy's quilt in solids and then I thought how boring that would be. Back I went to his website and found this picture.

I made a drawing of the painting. 

I planned my colors... 

and then cut it out to make a pattern. I had to keep cutting pieces and taping them back together, then cutting out a new part.

Drawing it was easy, but relocating it onto the fabric was harder. I used my patterns to go back and make sure my placements were right.

My husband helped me hang clothespins on my fence so we could hang up the quilt. I am in Florida, so there isn't any snow.....

I did misjudge the time I needed (insert laughter in the background supplied by my DH) to finish before having it quilted by my good friend Bob at Country Crossroads. I haven't finished top stitching, so it will have to go into my February quilting slot with Bob. 

Well, after all of the storytelling and blah, blah...here is what I have done. So far, this quilt is approx. 60x86.

I will be giving it to Cassidy for her 5th birthday!

There are so many huge trees around my house, it was hard to get a picture without shadows. I hope you like it. I am pretty happy with it! Thanks for visiting me.

Thank you to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt!!! You made everything so easy. You were supportive and constantly in contact, which was sooo great for me.

Thank you Madame Samm for all you do to bring us together, out of our little sewing spaces all over the world, to collaborate. Also, you have given us a warm, playful platform to display our work and a way to make new international friends.  Have you ever thought this may be a vehicle for world peace?

Here are the rest of the courageous quilters in today's group. Leave them many encouraging comments!

January 20

More Stars in Comanche

Buzzing and Bumbling

Quilting Quietly (that's me)

Grammie Q’s

The Quilted Cat

The Quilting Queen Online

Lauraluvsloons

Happy New Year!

What a great time our family had this holiday season! I hope you all made some wonderful memories with family and friends as well.

My friend Joyce Snyder helped me out by quilting my Africa quilt before I took off for San Francisco. 

She did a super job, for a good price and got it done in a matter of days! The quilt was 100x86...no small job. Here is a small sample of what the back looks like.

My sister has people interested in purchasing the quilt, so I was very anxious to get it done. Joyce to the rescue! I am planning to donate the money to the City of Joy in the Congo. The fabric I used for the quilt top was all from Africa. If you are interested in learning more about the city of joy. Click here.

A great quilt challenge has started over at Sew We Quilt. If you haven't checked it out yet, mosey on over and check it out here.

I am going to try posting some of the links for the coming week below...

January 13

Creatin’ In The Sticks

Meadowbrook

Cathy’s Chatter

Selina Quilts

Sew Fresh Quilts

The Sassy Quilter

January 14

Sew Me Something Good

Sew Peace to Peace

Quilting Prolifically

Linda D. (shown on Just Let Me Quilt)

In The Boon Docks

The Cosmic Quilter

January 15

Thimblemouse & Spouse

Daisy Days

My Addiction to Quilting

Mountain Mist Designs

Hill Valley Quilter

Malini’s Quilts

Englating

January 16

I Piece 2-Mary

A Reformed Heath’n

From This To That

A Quilting Sheep

CeLynn’s Sunflower Patch

Robin’s Fabric Nest

Quilted Delights

January 17

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Words & Stitches

Marla’s Crafts

Lisa In Port Hope

Transitions for Meee

One English Teacher

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Christmas in Florida! Today I drove past a house where the couple were hanging their lights outside in t-shirts and shorts!  At my house, my poinsettia is blooming like crazy....

Do you think of a poinsettia as a plant that is neck high? That is my plant in the front yard this year :)

The blooms are so beautiful.....

....even the lizards love them!

I would like to tell you about my little sewing group at school. There are eight 5th and 6th grade girls who are learning how to sew. This is the second year we have offered this community service sewing group after school. The girls are so sweet, patient and joyous! If I could post their beautiful happy faces, I would. They learn how to sew straight lines by making log cabins. They really are crazy log cabins until they start sewing straight!

We sew the squares all together and it looks so great, of course!

The next step we do with them is a basic 5x6 block baby quilt.

At the end of the year we donate our quilts to Wolfson Children's Hospital for the babies who need blankies. I have to say, I love our girlies...they work so hard and they do it joyfully.  I have to also mention my good friend, Karen Walker.  We teach the girls together and we are such a great team!

 

Thanksgiving is gone and Christmas is just one blink away...or should I say, "blink-blink"? Once again I am practicing something new, larger text. At least I can read it while I'm typing :)

Thanksgiving was so awesome! Dearest son, Patrick, was home, the Seminoles of FSU are now in first place and the weekend was full of football and fun.

I did finish my Africa quilt. It is not quilted yet. I am saving that for my friend, Bob, at Country Crossroads. I just love the way it turned out! I think it is one of the best quilts I have ever made. It wasn't the trickiest, but one of the most pleasing.

Hello Friends!

It is Thanksgiving week and I am thankful......for family, for friends, for a week off from school! I know I should be using these days to make the perfect Christmas presents for each of my nieces and nephews, but how can I show them to you without revealing my surprises?

I am giving myself the day off from Christmas sewing today because I woke up and finally figured out how to finish my African fabrics quilt! I have so much fabric that my sisters and I purchased on trips to Africa, but it is so hard to cut it! I just want to look at it and pet it.

  

So, I cut a few strips from each piece of fabric and started sewing them together with a small black strip of fabric in-between each one. Wow, it got pretty big, very fast and now it is 60"x 70".

I couldn't figure out what kind of border I wanted to add.  I just knew it had to be a little different, since the center was striping. 

Here is what I decided! Boxes on the outside with striping on the inside! Every block is different. I will be adding another row to each block as well. Here are a few of them. I will post the finished quilt very soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you, Lynn, for telling folks about my blog. 72 people visited! I feel like a rock star!

I am still playing with headers and blog width, fonts and color. so, while I am playing with all of these things, I thought I would post this quilt.  Bob, at Country Crossroads quilted it for me. It was my first foray into art quilting. I made it my header this week. 

I bought a charm pack of 12" squares, but couldn't decide what to do since it was pretty simple. I tried attaching smaller pieces and played with primitive, random top stitching. 

Bob's challenge was quilting it while not interfering with the stitching that was already there....he did a super job. I wasn't as satisfied with my own top stitching and realized...it takes a lot of work to look primitive!

Woot! Woot! It's Friday!

Happy Friday! I am home after a super day at school. I wanted to share my latest headband. I love to make crazy headbands! My friend, Lynn, from Country Crossroads Quilt Shop, asked if I would make one for her for the Jaguar game this weekend. Of course I would!  So here is Lynn and I think she likes it!

I am taking a block of the month quilting class with my friend, Karen Walker. We are making the quilt called Eureka.

 I am learning quite a few things about myself during this process....like I'm not good at doing things a little bit at a time. First, I did all of my homework...

16 of these...

Then I did the next two months homework.....

4 of these......

Then 12 of these ......

I learned once I start, I just can't seem to stop :) so now I'm two blocks ahead and have told myself to stop and do something else! I love the colors though and all of the women I am meeting in the class and most of all the time I get to spend with my buddy, Karen!