Design Wall Fun!!!

I've had lots of Quilty FUN this past week!

Our Guild held a Blooming Nine Patch class on Thursday, taught by the amazing Pam Thorne, one of our members who is a long-arm quilter and heads up our Scrapper Bees group.  Her goal was mainly to get us organized and help us plan our color schemes.  Pam is a super-organized quilter, so I knew we were in for a treat!

This is what mine looks like on the Design Wall so far....

This is just showing the first 3 fabrics, with the 4th just coming in on the right, and of course none of the blocks are sewn together yet except the nine-patches.  The pattern calls for 8 fabrics, but I will be using 9 in my quilt.  Of course, you can probably guess that my colors are bold and bright all the way to the end, right?

I couldn't decide between the first two, but I finally went with the more solid one on the left.

You should have SEEN all the fabrics in the middle of my studio as I tried to pick and choose the perfect ones for this quilt!!!  My husband took one look and turned and left the room without saying a word - yep, he was speechless!  It was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated to choose fabrics that would blend into one another in a pleasing way - and then to have enough of each fabric too.  I've been scrappy quilting so much lately, so I only buy half yards of something I like.  By the 5th fabric, you need more than 1 yard, and about 2 yards of the 8th fabric!  I did cut my strips a little smaller (1-1/2" instead of 1-3/4") so I could use my Sizzix machine to cut the strips :)  So that allowed me to use slightly smaller yardages.

There were some gorgeous quilts blooming in our class!!!  I wish I had thought to take pictures, but I'll try to share some of the finished quilts with you :)  This is as far as I got in class, and it hasn't been touched since I got home - because Miss Sara has been sewing!

Remember the pillowcase project we were going to start?  Well.....
          She sewed .....

New polish that matches her pillowcase! *sigh*

    
And she ironed.....

     And she made her first pillowcase!

Yes, she is hooked :*D

Best of all, she has been given a sewing machine - all her own - and she is in heaven!!!

The same Pam Thorne who taught our class saw on my blog that Sara was learning to sew and offered her first sewing machine to her!!!  Of course, Pam has come a long way from her learning days and this little machine no longer gets any attention.  Her girls have their own machines, and this one just got stuck in the closet.  When she offered it to Sara, I was floored, and Sara was thrilled!!!  She posted this picture to her Facebook timeline, and calls it "My new baby♥♥"

So all afternoon, Sara played with her new machine and we learned all about how to thread it, and clean it, and wind bobbins and ... well, just everything!  She said, "I can't wait to go home and show off my new sewing machine and make lots of new things!"  Thanks for making her dream come true Pam!!!

Everyone knows stitching goes better with Ruffles - right?!?
See the bag hiding there on her lap?
Like Grandma, like granddaughter - LOL!!!

Showing the cute stitches it will make to Grandpa :)

Today the girls come to my house for sit-n-sew, so I know it will be a fun day!  Sara will be sewing with us - working on her Dolphin pillow.



I hope to get a lot more nine-patches done for my Blooming Nine Patch :)  What's on your Design Wall?  Share with everyone on Mondays over at Judy's Patchwork Times!  Also linking up with Connie's fun Tuesday Linky Party!

And come back tomorrow for a recap of my fun day Saturday at TVQA Assembly Day!!!  

Hint - Jenny Doan of Missouri Star was there!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Design Wall Monday - Catch-up Style!!!

There are so many things to do now that Sara has gone home!!!  

Not only do I have to get back into reading all my favorite blogs, but all my projects are screaming for attention!

This is why my Design Wall is in two pieces....

I often have to get behind it to get into my stash closets :)  No work has been done on my Blooming Nine-Patch this week, and I really want to get that next color up there.  These strips are just waiting patiently to be sewn up and made into delicious 9-patches - YUM!!!

You can see tons of wonderful projects in progress at Judy's Patchwork Times today!

My next priority is to make sure I am ready for several classes for the below quilt that I will be teaching soon.....the bright and beautiful Amish Beauties!

Then I have TWO Bertie's Year blocks that desperately need attention....

Yep, they've been languishing!  I've got them fused down, but not yet stitched down.  And I was doing so well at keeping up!  And I got an email that the next one is already on it's way - yikes!

I want to make a See-N-Go Project Bag  - from these gorgeous scraps (you can see mine HERE and get your FREE pattern from Jacquelynne Steve's Summer E-magazine - also FREE - HERE!) to match my Stitchery Keeper - see more about it HERE.




And then I have "just a few" other projects that are calling my name LOL!!!  

This month is Light and Lime Greens for the Rainbow Challenge over at SoScrappy, and I don't need to make any more green blocks so I'll take a break from that this month.  Hopefully that will give me time to catch up on some of these more pressing projects :)

So I know you're wondering if we got everything made for Sara before she left, right?  Yep, we did!  And then some, because I did some repairs on several of her pieces of clothing the night before she left :)

The Foxy Shorts turned out really, really cute!

I was a little nervous about making the Woodland Creatures PJ's.  It had been quite a while since I did any apparel sewing and working with these new-fangled all-in-one patterns was a little bit of a challenge at first...

And working with jersey knit fabric again - let me just say UGH!!!

But they really did turn out cute and very, very comfy!!!

And Sara finished up her second pillowcase - cupcakes for her sister Emma!

Yesterday morning we met her father and sister halfway between Nashville and Monroe NC to get her on her way back home so she can begin getting ready for school.  They start on August 26 there.  On the way, Sara finished up the little cuddle rag quilt I made the night before for Miss Link by snipping all the edges to make them ruffle when they are washed ....

As you can see below, Miss Link was a huge help - LOL!!!

It turned out really cute and I enjoyed sewing up those scraps and getting them out of my stash!  Sara will wash it and make it all raggy and cuddly today :)

It was so much fun to have her here ... and teaching her to sew was a privilege I never thought I would have.  What a blessing!!!  And I really want to thank you all for listening to my posts about her visits :)  But it was really strange to wake up this morning and see her room empty :(  That will take a few days to get used to I'm guessing.  But my guess is that Gypsy is not missing Miss Link even one little bit!!!!

What do you think?

Oh - if cats could talk, we'd all be in trouble!!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Cozy Afternoon Block #3!

Looks who's come out to play!

This is the Laurel Burch kitty that graces my Block #3 for Jacquelynne Steve's BOM Cozy Afternoon =^..^=

Last month, we made Blocks #1 and #2 --- you ARE making these with us aren't you?  These first two blocks were fun and quite easy to make - and I LOVE EASY!!!  Don't you?  Not to mention FREE, of course :*)  You can see my post on making the first two blocks HERE.

If you've just discovered Cozy Afternoon, it's definitely not too late to join in!  Or how about inviting a friend or two to join in the fun with you?  Just go to THIS LINK and sign up - you'll receive Blocks #1, #2 and #3.  And it won't take very long to catch up either :*)

Assembly of this block is easy - which is a very good thing because I almost waited too late to make it!!!  I was so looking forward to this block, and it was on my calendar for this weekend ... but .....  Saturday was a blur of things we had to take care of around the house, and then we unexpectedly added a 12-hour trip yesterday to pick up our granddaughter Sara.  I got home about 8:30pm, got Sara and her puppy Link all settled in, and was just about ready to fall into the bed, exhausted, at about 10:30 last night when I remembered!!!  Yep, I still had a block to make and this post to write - YIKES!!!

Miss Sara was an angel, keeping me company (and keeping me awake!) while I pulled fabrics, cut them up, framed my kitty, and began to sew my block.  Sara chose the kitty for this block =^..^=

Then I put her to work pressing my seams as each piece came racing out of the sewing machine......

...... she did an awesome job and saved me SO much time!!!

Many of you may remember Sara from her visit last summer when we had fun teaching her how to sew.  You can read all about those adventures HERE if you're interested :)  We sure are hoping to sneak in some stitching time this visit too!

Finally, my block was done!

Oh my gosh, I love it!

You might notice that because I want to keep consistency in my corners for these blocks, I had to revise Jacquelynne's pattern just a touch by leaving out the square in the corner sections.  Mine are just simple half-square triangles :)

These blocks are really fun, and I love that they are easy to make but still have great visual impact.  Here are all the blocks so far on my Design Wall ....

The blocks in the corners are the Cozy Afternoon blocks, and the others are from Sew Sweet Simplicity, Jacquelynne's BOM last year.  Next month I'll add Block #4 to the center of the layout and it will really begin looking like a quilt top!

As always, to celebrate this month's new block, Jacquelynne is offering a wonderful package of her PDF digital patterns to one lucky reader here at A Quilt and A Prayer.  I spy the cutest little petal pincushion in there!!!!

The giveaway is open to all readers and will end promptly at midnight, central time, Sunday, July 19.  For your chance to win, just leave a nice comment on this post telling me the most exciting thing going on in your life right now.  I love happy stories!  Be sure to visit Jacquelynne's blog today as well, and see all the other bloggers who are sharing their finished #3 blocks and hosting a giveaway - multiply your chances of winning!

And don't forget to mark your calendars ---- Next block - August 10th :*)

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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A Few Fun Projects - and More on the Horizon

We took Sara and the grandpuppy Link home on Wednesday - what a nice visit it was!

One of our main goals was to get Sara reacquainted with her sewing machine, gifted to her by a sweet friend during her last visit.  She had decided to leave the machine at my house until she was at a place in her life where she could devote more time to sewing.  Although she is finishing up her senior year and plans to start college courses in a few months, she is excited about doing some small projects at home this summer, so we've sent the machine and some basic tools home with her.

As promised, while she was here we each made a cuter-than-cute Shark Pencil Case which I told you about in this earlier post.  This is a design by Patchwork Posse which can be found as a free download on Craftsy.  I got to play with a lot saved-up crumbs for this project....

Sara's case is done in her beloved vintage-inspired pastels....

..... while mine is done in a fun mix of grays - one even has quilting text!

This was a fun project, so much so that I was seriously entertaining thoughts of making one out of each color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge next year - right up until time to add the zipper - UGH!!!  The designer says this can be a bit "fiddly" - riiiiiiight!  I even had to call in the Snoopervisor for help on this one!

Unfortunately, he wasn't much help.  He's decided zippers are not his thing!

In fact, he was plumb tuckered out by the time we got that sucker in there
and declared an emergency nap break =^..^=

  

It was nerve-wracking to tell the truth, and I had to do quite a bit of hand-stitching to close in the ends properly.  But they are well worth the effort I have to say. These turned out so darn cute and Sara was delighted with her accomplishment.  She did all of the sewing on her shark herself except for the zipper.  I put that in for her - I didn't want the poor child traumatized at this early stage of her sewing career :*)

And here's mine before the button eyes were added ....

I even used "scraps" for the buttons - these are buttons I've saved from recycled men's shirts!

No quilting was done on the Blooming 9 Patch while Sara was here, so I didn't meet my Guild UFO Challenge for June.  We were just too busy, and I had a couple of non-quilty things going on that needed a lot of my time and energy.  But Rocky volunteered for some overtime hours in the Studio to stand guard over the quilt until I can get back to it ....

One reason I ran out of time is because we celebrated the 80th birthday of my dear friend, Joanne!

Yes, she's 80 and still fabulous!!!

And she runs rings around me!  This is the Joanne who often shares her long-arm machine with me.  She had two parties, one given by her daughter for all of her many friends at church, book club, women's groups, as well as a few of her quilting friends.  The second was a small surprise party at the home of one of our Mountain Quiltfest ladies, Susie.  I made the cake for this party and put a lot of love and time into planning and executing it, especially since it had been ages since I had decorated a cake and I wanted it to be perfect!

Joanne loves birds and birdhouses, especially cardinals, so naturally I had to put a couple of those in the birdhouses.  You can just barely see the white picket fence behind them if you look closely.  I let out a deep whoosh of relief once that was done ... I was definitely reminded of why I no longer decorate cakes LOL!!!

I did manage to finish my latest See-N-Go Project bag.  This is the back of the bag featuring a Kaffe Fassett Corsage print ....

And the front with a vinyl see-thru window - I just LOVE Kaffe's purple and pink dot fabric lining showing through - so bright and cheerful :*)

This is a pattern I designed for Jacquelynne Steves for her Summer 2014 Summer E-magazine.  Some of you told me the links I shared in my last post for this pattern no longer work, so she gave me new links for you to get this pattern from her......

Please sign up for my free newsletter and emagazine here http://jacquelynnesteves.com/my-emagazine/

and when you sign up you will get a welcome email with a link to the archives page with ALL of the previous issues. The bag project was in the Summer 2014 issue.

You also can read the online magazine issue without signing up for my newsletter herehttps://issuu.com/jacquelynnesteves/docs/the_art_of_home_summer2014

If you have further questions, please email me at comments@jacquelynnesteves.com

I highly recommend that you sign up for Jacquelynne's FREE e-magazine - it's always full of fun projects, inspirational ideas, and even a few delicious recipes!

A teensy bit of hand stitching has been worked in here and there when I can.  I always enjoy linking up with Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching linky party - today she talks about multi-tasking and the value of slowing down.  It's a great post - be sure to go over and check it out!

My 3-D braided tree is almost completely stitched down in my Blue Collection center....

And I am finally getting back to playing a little with my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  This is the latest one in progress ....

Even with the best of intentions, I didn't find time to join in on these great QAL's, although I fully intend to make a start this coming week.....

   

I really, really want to do both of these.  I love starting something new and fresh, don't you?  I plan to keep both of these pretty simple so they don't end up on my UFO list for next year LOL!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Linking up with the following fun parties:
(links will show up when the party starts :*)
Slow Sunday Stitching
Tuesday Linky Party
Scraptastic Tuesday
Oh Scrap!
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Let's Book It