Time for a Giveaway

October Surprise 38" x 50"

Next week most of us in the U.S. will celebrate Thanksgiving. For my family this involves a trip around the Capital Beltway into Maryland to my parents’ house where we enjoy good company and a wonderful dinner of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, cole slaw and pies (pumpkin, pecan and apple). I also want to celebrate here. Your encouraging comments and cyber friendships mean a lot to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, respond to my questions, follow and lurk. I also realized it has been almost 2 years since I started this blog. It’s been fun and I’ve learned so much from you. So it’s time for a giveaway! Your chances are good - I'll have four winners.

I made four little quilts with the leftover flying geese from October Surprise. I’m being a little sneaky here – I already picked two winners from those who commented two posts ago. I wanted to thank those of you who often or always comment on my posts. My method is to write your names on slips of paper and blindly pull them out of a bowl. I haven't tried the random number generator. The old fashioned way seems more fun to me.

The remaining two little quilts will be selected from commenters on this post (it would be nice if you are a follower) and will be announced December 2nd. I want to give plenty of time for people who are busy traveling for or hosting Thanksgiving to comment. I'm willing and happy to send these little quilts to other countries.

The first two winners are -

Doniene of Now it’s just quilts!

and

libbyQ of Paper Napkin Poetry

I drew Doniene’s name first so she gets first choice. Then libbyQ can choose. 

green and tan strippy 14.5" x 18"

stars and pumpkin pie cornerstones 14.25" square

black strippy 11.25" x 14.5"

pumpkin pie strippy 10.25" x 14.5"

Don't forget to leave a comment for the second drawing!

Here is a closer look at October Surprise-

Happy Thanksgiving!

Doll Quilt

Thought I would join in and link to Taryn's online quilt show.  I just finished this little quilt using some of the flying geese I had left over from October Surprise. Remember how I thought I needed 192 more flying geese? Well, I don't know how I was so off. I only needed four more. I guess this is why I tend not to figure out how many I need of anything in advance and wait till I get to the end and just make more. I had 188 leftover so I made four little quilt tops and this is the first one finished.

Here it is acting as a lap quilt for Addy. I dug Addy and her bed out of my daughter's closet. I think I'll keep her out for a while. She brings back lots of good memories of reading American Girl books with my daughter who is now on her own adventure in New Zealand. My daughter is working on organic farms and meeting people from all over the world through the WWOOF program. My little girl who has only known suburban living and spent the last couple of years as a vegetarian (though not strict - every once in a while a Chick-fil-A sandwich would call her name) now knows how to pluck a chicken! I get an email or two from her every week and my son showed me photos on her Facebook page. She is having a wonderful time with the Kiwis!

Enjoy the weekend and remember to hop over to Taryn's.

October Surprise

A finished top-

38" x 50"

I plan to use this Barbara Brackman fabric for the back.

It's Jo Morton's Rhubarb Crisp pattern.

I'll probably just machine quilt diagonal lines.

Guess what!?!  I had lots of flying geese left over. I wonder if there are 192 of them. Maybe it is time for a little giveaway. Stay tuned!

We in Virginia had less damage than we feared from Hurricane Sandy. Lots of rain, howling winds and power outages in my area. Luckily, our power flickered just once and stayed on. My thoughts and prayers go out to those severely affected by the storm.

I have a bit of a cold and it is starting to go to my chest. My favorite remedy is Cold Season Yogi Tea. It takes a little getting used to but I think it helps. I breathe in the steam and try to drink as much of it as I can. I watch a lot of TV when I'm not feeling well. Yesterday, it was mostly HGTV. I like House Hunters and the Property Brothers. This afternoon I think I'll turn on Love it or List it.

Flying Geese

^{I’ve been making flying geese (FG) every chance I get. I thought I had enough and starting sewing them together for the sashing on my 4” stars. With Jo Morton’s method you get four of the same FG unit with each set of squares. She suggested separating them into four piles and using a pile of FG for each quadrant of the quilt. It’s an easy way to vary your geese. I finished sewing together one pile of FG and counted to see if I had enough. No. I redid my math and realized I need 192 more geese! It's back to the cutting mat.}

^{I’ve been hand quilting in the afternoons. It is amazing to me how quickly it goes just by doing a little each day. I’m about a quarter of the way done with this quilt. You may not remember I took out some of the hand quilting because the back was puckering. It started to happen again and I was determined not to have to pick out any more stitching. I super basted that one section using bits of leftover thread on the needles in my needle case, hand quilted it and I’m happy with the result. I also found the direction I quilted in made a big difference. Next time I have a hand quilting project I will do a better job of basting.}

^{Many of us on the east coast of the U.S. are expecting a wicked storm early next week. The pantry is stocked, gutters will be cleared and things on the porch contained today. Let’s hope it packs less of a punch than expected.}

^{Here are a few dog pics. You can tell I'd rather be stitching than doing yard work.}

^Len

 Duke

^Penny

^{Penny just turned 15 years old. If you are holding a camera, she will NOT look at you. I think it is because she doesn't like the flash.}

WIPs

I really appreciate all your encouraging words and suggestions on my challenge quilt. I hope to get back to it soon, but in the meantime I decided to keep working on this quilt.

I started it in a Jo Morton class last spring. When I put it away because of other projects I hoped I’d have time in the fall to pull it out again. I just love these 4” stars and I like the method Jo showed us to make the flying geese. You can see her method here.

It’s been a while since I showed my hexagons. I stitched a lot on these over the summer.

I found this on the Herring Run Quilter’s Guild website-

Fun Quilting Abbreviations:

NESY: not even started yet

FQ: fat quarter

LQS: local quilt shop

FART: fabric acquisition road trip

FIU: finish it up

HSY: haven’t started yet

OBW: one block wonder

PIGS: projects in grocery sacks

PIPS: projects in process

SABLE: stash accumulation beyond life expectancy

SEX: stash enhancement expedition

UFO: unfinished object

USO: unstarted object

VIP: very important project

WHIMM: works hidden in my mind

WIP: work in progress

WIWMI: wish it would make itself

WOMBAT: waste of money, batting and time

WWIT: what was I thinking

WISP: work in slow progress

WIVSP: work in very slow progress

A few weeks ago I bought this African violet at Home Depot. I haven’t had houseplants in ages. These blooms have faded and new ones seem to be sprouting even though I haven’t gotten the African violet food the label says it needs. I hope I can keep this little guy alive. So far it seems to like the filtered light in my living room.

I'm off to go work on a WIP.

Challenged

Thanks so much to all of you who commented on my last post. I replaced the sand in the pincushions with crushed walnuts and they are working out fine. I didn't find my wool batt scraps until later so I plan to try them in the future and will keep an eye out for wool roving.

This red and white challenge is..well..challenging me. This was an exchange among last years quilt show committee. When we did the final exchange we were challenged to make a quilt for the show next year. Each side is limited to 40 inches. The blocks are 6 1/2 inces. I"ve never really done a challenge like this. I've done chapter challenges, but there wasn't the same pressure. If I didn't get it done in time for the big reveal at the end of the year it was no big deal. There are 18 participants and 18 blocks so there "should" be 18 quilts in the show.

My idea was an ocean waves setting. I'm glad I realized fairly early on the problem with the red fabric making up part of the side of a block which is the case for 6 of the blocks. The basket on the top left looks okay, but the bowtie to the right and below looks off. I actually wanted the bowtie horizontal, but made a piecing error. It doesn't matter because I don't like the red in the sashing touching so much red in the block. I realized this toward the end of the evening last night so I just started playing around with the hsts. They flying geese sashing on the left is too busy and I don't much care for the hst border to the right of the maple leaf. Then I just started playing with the hsts making little quilts on the right. No sewing just playing. Today I looked through some quilt books for inspiration. Nothing inspired. This evening I decided to put a 1 inch strip around a block to see if that would work. See the bottom right pinwheel block. What do you think? At first I didn't like it. I think my problem is all the different blocks. I was thinking, too, that I could just sew the blocks together without any sashing and do a big zigzag border. I'm going to put this aside for a while and play with another project. Being challenged like this brought to mind a comment my friend Judy made as she shared her challenge quilt last year. "I find life challenging enough".

Finished Crumb Top

I finished the crumb quilt top. I don’t think the zigzag setting shows up as much as it could have and I think it’s because there is too much variation in the blues. I should not have included the lightest and darkest. That is okay – it is done and now it sits with the two other quilt tops waiting to be quilted. Here are a some closeups.

I found some inspiration for these blocks so I’m now making 508 red and white HSTs. This quilt is for a challenge due in February. I want to finish the top soon because I might want to hand quilt it.

I need some advice on pincushion filling. My sister gave me the Mary Engelbreit teapot on the right and I’ve used it for years. I picked up the little black hen pincushion at the quilt show boutique back in June. I finally pulled it out to use and realized it was dulling my pins. It appears to be filled with sand. Hmm….I realized I used sand to make the wool tomato pincushion (April 2004 issue of APQ magazine) shown in the center for my niece. I got the pincushion back from her and did a test. Yes, it seems to dull pins as well. What do you suggest I use to refill these? I have some crushed walnut shells but I’ve never used them. I think the teapot is filled with a poly stuffing. I don’t want to use that for the other pincushions because it would be too lightweight. It works for the teapot because it has a firm base. Would appreciate any insight you have on pincushion filling.