“We Support You” Blog Hop and a Giveaway!

I love, love, love the heart of Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt!  She created a lovely applique pattern to help show our support for members of our community who may be facing one of life’s biggest challenges.  Now, personally, I had an aunt who faced not one but two bouts of breast cancer in the late 60’s and  early 70’s.  Later, the cancer went on a wander around and turned up on her spinal column.  Through it all, she was the most kind and lovely person you would ever want to meet!  So, this quilt is dedicated to my Aunt June, a many decades survivor of breast cancer and a generally wonder example of grace under pressure as well as to a couple of dear friends who are survivors.

Now, before I show it to you, a word about the pattern.  Madam Samm’s pattern is available for purchase for $ 12.00 by emailing Madame Samm directly at:
madamesamm@me.com (and it’s much more elegant than my project!)

However, sometimes a pattern is not so much a pattern as an inspiration and I hope she’s not too disappointed with where I went with her inspiration.  You see, every time I looked at the pattern, my mind kept superimposing piecing for embroidery and applique.  So, here’s my “homage” to Madam Samm’s pattern with all free-hand piecing (except for the border and paper-pieced ribbon.)

Who knew my car made a good quilt rack? Kudos to my youngest for the photo!

Honestly, free piecing the bra was pretty fun and I’m excited with how it turned out.  I have no idea where this one will end up.  I was thinking of offering it to the mammography clinic in my women’s health group.  One of the OB docs is a quilter and has filled the clinic and lobby with quilts which gives it a wonderfully warm feel but the mammography area could use a little cheer.  So, there’s my entry…I’ve wandered a bit far afield but I’ve enjoyed the journey and hope you like the outcome!  My heartfelt thanks to Madam Samm and  to Pat at Life in the Scrap Patch for putting this all together and for their wonderful, caring hearts!

To see what the pattern really looks like, please hop on over to these talented quilters

Feb  4^th 

Kris Loves Fabric

Words & Stitches You’re Here!

Jane’s Quilting

Tea Time Creations

Now, I like to do a little giveaway with my blog hops, just to give a little something back and so I’m giving away a trio of fat quarters…but there’s a catch.  You’ll have to tell me what color you’d like if you win, because I haven’t even shopped for them yet!  So, tell me in the comments what color you’d like and, yes, I will ship internationally!  I’ll have Mr. Random draw a comment number when the hop is done.

Happy quilting and, for those of you in the fight right now, stay strong…all playing aside, we really do support you!

Beth

A January Re-cap…blocks and finishes

Oh what an exciting month this January has been! So exciting that I’ve been awfully quiet on here. So, let me tell you what’s been happening…
First, the news! My older daughter who just graduated nursing school in December took her national nursing boards and she passed on the first go! The very next day, she flew to Colorado to interview for a program that takes new grads right into critical care. She had an early interview because she was flying to Copenhagen that afternoon for a trip to Europe (that’s a whole other story) and they called offered her the job before she even got back to the airport! Now, the bad news is that she’s moving to Colorado….but’s that’s yet another story! I’m just so excited for her to have this amazing opportunity to do the kind of nursing she really wants to do!

Now, finishes and blocks.  I found a way to keep track of both by putting little white boards by both my upstairs and downstairs sewing areas.  For January, I made…drumroll, please….

Four finishes (not 1,111…lol!)  and between both boards a total of 128 blocks!  Woo hoo!

My first two finishes of the year were charity quilts and so were the second two.  I showed these two in a prior post.  I took this pile of fabric

to this make this quilt.

Then I finished the quilting and binding on the top charity quilt in this pile.

I had stumbled on this lovely bag of pastel scraps on our guild’s free scrap  table.

I didn’t think to photograph the bag until I’d already started so it was fuller than this at first!

Someone had thrown their project leftovers into a bag and, well, sometimes a bag of cute scraps needs to get used right now!  There were already some sewn strip sets for nine-patches and four-patches so I put them together into a doll quilt and a baby quilt for our guild’s charity outreach.  The batting and backings were scrap and free pieces, too so the only investment in these two quilts was the $2 piece of thrift store purple that I used for borders and bindings.

I even got my hand-me-down Handi Quilter (original system that you put your own machine in) up and working and quilted the baby quilt on it.  (There’s a reason that there is no close-up of the quilting!)  I absolutely hated it at first but I’m committing to quilting six charity quilts on it before I give up.  By the end of the first quilt, I was starting to like it.    In between things, I’ve been working hard at cutting scraps into usable strips and squares, etc.  My pile of scraps doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller but it’s hard to tell when you add a scrappy kitty to the mix!

I’m working away on my entry for the We Support You Blog Hop…but I’m a little worried.  You know how sometimes a pattern is just a “jumping off spot?”  Well, I sure hope Madam Samm is going to like where I landed with this one!  In the meantime, here’s the rest of the schedule so you can see what this talented group is up to!  I’m linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes and checking back in with my block total at Prairie Moon.

Happy quilting!

Beth

 

We Support You Blog Hop Full Schedule Jan 29^th 

Life in The Scrapatch

Living With Purpose

What About Rheema?

Kwilt Krazy

Jan 30^th 

Just Let Me Quilt

Stitch and Quilt

how arT you

Living My Dream

Feb 2^nd 

Quiltscapes

Made By Me In Red

Ga’s House

Sew Incredible Crazy

Feb 3^rd 

My Quilting Journey

Creativity Amongst Chaos

Peanut’s Patchwork

KaHolly

Feb  4^th 

Kris Loves Fabric

Words & Stitches – That’s me!

Jane’s Quilting

Tea Time Creations

Feb 5^th  

Selina Quilts

Dutchess Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Moose Stash Quilting

Lovelli Quilts

Feb 6^th  

I Piece 2 – Mary

Baa’s Amazing Adventure

Quilted Delights The Blended Blog

Feb 9^th 

Stitchin By The Lake

 Tea Leaf Quilts

Books, Hooks, Sticks, etc

Seams To Be Sew

Stitchen’ My Life Away

Feb 10^th  

 ^{Creatin’ In the Sticks}

^{The Quilting Queen Online}

^{Everyone Deserves A Quilt}

^{The Quilted Cat}

Hill Valley Quilter

Feb 11^th  

Buzzing and Bumbling

In Stitches and Seams

All thingz sewn

The Slow Quilter

Quilts From my Crayon Box

Sew We Quilt

Twas the Night Before…and a Giveaway!

If you don’t know Madam Samm of Sew We Quilt, she’s one of the most creative and encouraging ladies I’ve met in the blogging community. So, when she proposed a Secret Santa sort of blog hop, I signed right up! Knowing that Marlene  of Stitching by the Lake was cheering us all on made it even more fun. Then, of course, I had to battle my fear of rejection and my inclination towards procrastination. What if my partner didn’t like what I made? What if I epically failed? What if I didn’t like what I got? Well, as usual, all my worrying was pointless! My recipient loved her gift and I got this adorable set in the mail along with the gorgeous, handmade card and fabric!

Look at these adorable faces!

Everything was so adorable, I had to do close-ups!  I can’t wait to put these out for Christmas but the penguin may have to stay out all year…pink being my very favorite!  So a huge thank you to Mandy for such a fun gift!

Here’s the rest of today’s list of hoppers, be sure to check them all out. What I made is being shown over on Apple Avenue Quilts.

Thursday, Nov. 13

Daisy Days

Just Keep Swimming

Words and Stitches – that’s me!

Apple Avenue Quilts

Pampered Pettit

Moose Stash Quilting

 

Now, as usual, I have a little giveaway for my commenters and this time my younger daughter did all the work from choosing the fat quarters to photographing them with her cat, Jack. Jack, as you can tell, is a real character.

I always say he’s a dog in a cat suit! So, leave a comment about your favorite homemade holiday gift to make and give (this is cheating on my part….I need ideas!) or any other comment and you’ll be entered to win these three fat quarters.  Oh, and I took some photos while I was making my items so I’ll try to post a tutorial for my coaster set later in the week.

Thanks for hopping by and have fun!
Beth

Here Kitty, Kitty…A Black Cat Crossing Tale (with giveaway)

Once upon a time, there was a crazy cat lady who quilted….yes, that’s me, five cats in the house and one stray we’re feeding.  Trolling the interwebs, I found an announcement by a wonderful lady named Madam Samm that a very good witch named Wicked Wendy was cheering a blog hop devoted to Black Cats!  Well, what kind of quilting cat lady would I be if I didn’t hop along?

So I shopped and I pieced and I played with a pattern from Jennifer at Sew Hooked.  (I wanted to buy the whole Moda line but I did have to remember the other exciting events of the month…my dear daughter had a birthday yesterday!)   I was all set to take pictures of my finished project when the battery died in my camera.  So,  I settled for night shots with Grumpy Pumpkin.

 

Scrappy Black Kitties with Grumpy Pumpkin

Here’s a more straight-on shot

Now, I’ve been having a lot of fun at my LQS buying scrap bags so I’m sharing some of my pretties with one winner (there will be a sweet something in the envelope, too.)  Just leave a comment before hopping away and you’ll be entered to win. And, yes, I’ll ship internationally.

Now, hop on over to see these talented people have to brighten your day

Tuesday, October 28

Selina Quilts

Jane’s Quilting

Quilted Delights

Words & Stitches – you are here!

And remember…don’t be a grumpy pumpkin!

The Rush is On! (With a Giveaway!)

It’s Rush Hour Time and, guess what? I’m rushing! Actually, I’m early as my day isn’t until Tuesday but that means my post needs to be up at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday and I’ll be on a plane right at that time so I’m posting early! Just in case I can’t find reliable Wi-Fi, here’s my rush around story.

A few weeks ago, I found an adorable tutorial for a laptop bag on the Bear Creek Quilting site.  The idea behind the Rush Hour hop was to make something to do with our morning rush and I thought this would be perfect!  I ordered up my fabric and launched into the tutorial.  About halfway through the process, I was struck by a thought.  I work at home.  My laptop never really leaves the living room.  I called my oldest daugther, “Sarah,”  I said, “I think I’m making you a laptop case.”  We both had a good laugh over it and, fortunately, she loves it!  I think I’ll make another one, though, with different pockets and make myself a general purpose bag that my Kindle can ride around in with a few books and hexies, etc. I love the look of this bag and the ingenious little zip pocket that lets you convert an outside pocket to a slide to attach it to your roller bag.

My younger daughter did a photo shoot for me and I couldn’t decide which of these shots I liked better.

Hanging out on the front porch…

And getting “hung up” on its way to the car!

I loved, loved, loved working with these prints from Studio E!  I wish I could have ordered the whole set but, well, one must do as the budget can manage!  Now, I did mention a giveaway and a plane ride, right?  So, here’s the deal.  Leave me a comment, any kind of comment and I’ll draw a winner on October 13th.  I’m giving away this cute little bag of smaller pieces but, I’ll sweeten the pot with an as-yet-to-be-found something from my trip to the East Coast (I hear there’s a terrific quilt shop in NYC.)

Now, be sure to hop over on Tuesday to the wonderful, talented people I’m sharing my day with and, of course, this all wouldn’t be possible without the terrific duo of Madam Samm and Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.

Tuesday, September 30

Lily Patch

MooseStash Quilting

Words & Stitches

Karma Willow Designs

Kwilt Krazy

How arT you?

Sew We Quilt

And now, in the spirit of Rush Hour, I’m rushing off to pack.  It’s 8:15 PM and I leave at 6:00 am.  I’m not packed and I still have to hem two pair of pants.  You might say that “Rush Hour” is a way of life at my house.  Or, as I like to put it, “Everything around here is the Festival of the Last Minute!”

Happy quilting!

Beth

See You in September…My Day! (And a Giveaway!)

Did you have to write those “What I Did Over Summer Vacation” essays in school every year? We did and I often felt like my fellow students had much cooler summers than I did. Now, I’m revisiting that feeling because, frankly, I didn’t get much done this summer!
Summer is my busiest work season with kids for 10-12 hours each day and, since I’m currently carrying around my own sub-tropical climate, heat and I don’t mix well! Having warned you not to expect anything mind-blowing, let me thank the wonderful Madam Samm and Shari of Living With Purpose for putting this all together.  Honestly, without this hop, I’m not sure I’d have made it up to the third floor to quilt at all!

My #1 finish is only partially mine.  A friend pieced this beauty and then handed it over to me for quilting.

I really wanted to do this one justice so I did my first ever pebble quilting and used straight lines to help make the two different browns stand out.

My second and third finishes are a bag for my nursing student daughter and a charity quilt for my guild.  In fact, you may remember that the charity quilt hit a snag when I discovered I did this…

A big oops!

It took a little thinking through but I tossed my original idea and came up with this instead.  I knew it was ok when my younger daughter saw it and said, “Can I have it?”  (She only asks that about the ones she likes.)

Nurses tote and charity quilt.

Now, you may be wondering “Where’s the gingham?” and here it is…

I used red gingham to line my tote bag because it reminds me of little Red Cross symbols.  I did plan to make some other gingham items but, as I said, it was a busy summer!

Now, on to the giveaway.  Today was my first day of “kids in school all day and no baby” so I took a jaunt to the quilt shop and these two “Fall-y” batiks caught my eye.  To be entered, just leave me a comment about how your summer (or winter for my Southern Hemisphere friends) was.  If you did something super fun, I love to live vicariously!  One winner will be drawn by Mr. Random after the hop to receive 1/2-yard of each fabric.  And, yes, I’ll ship internationally.

Please be sure to visit the rest of our fabulous hoppers.

Friday, September 5
Stitchin’ By The Lake
Coeur d’Alene
Words & Stitches
TheSlowQuilter
Pig Tales and Quilts
All Thingz Sewn

As usual, I’m thrilled to be a part of such a talented and fun group and thank you for stopping by!

Happy quilting!

Beth

See You in September!

Do you remember writing those “What I did this summer” essays every September? Well, a talented crew of quilters and crafters are showing off their summer projects in the See You in September Blog Hop organized by Sew We Quilt! I’ll be posting my projects on Friday but be sure to check out all these other talented folks!

Wednesday, September 3
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Bumbleberry Cottage
Thimblemouse and Spouse
Mad Quilter’s Disease
In The Boon Docks

Thursday, September 4
Jane’s Quilting
Life in the Scrapatch
Sew Many Yarns
Gracie Oliver Arts
Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Friday, September 5
Stitchin’ By The Lake
Coeur d’Alene
Words & Stitches
TheSlowQuilter
Pig Tales and Quilts
All Thingz Sewn

Monday, September 8
Quilting Quietly
Creatin’ in the Sticks
Procrastination Queen
Lovelli Quilts
Cherry Blossoms

Tuesday, September 9
Just Let Me Quilt
Marjorie’s Busy Corner
The Quilting Queen Online Blog
Marla’s Crafts
K and S Sweets and Stitching

Wednesday, September 10
Secretly Stitching
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilt n Queen
Quilted Delights

Grandmama’s Stories

Thursday, September 11
Susie’s World
Needled Mom
Cate’s Linens
How ART you?
I Like To QuiltBlog

Friday, September 12
Sunshine-quilting
Sew Peace to Peace
MoosestashQuilting
More Stars in Comanche
Living With Purpose

Monday, September 15
I Piece 2-Mary
Till We Quilt Again
Vroomans Quilts
Nini and the Sea
Seams To Be Sew

My Quilting Journey

Tuesday, September 16
Life, quilts and a cat too
Meadowbrook
Apple Avenue Quilts
Just Keep Swimming
Patchwork Sampler
Sew We Quilt

It’s Time for a Picnic!

 

Are you ready for some picnic inspiration?  My kitties love a good indoor picnic of kitty cookies with a catnip chaser.   (We have to be careful with Jack and catnip because he’s a mean drunk!) My day is on the 5th and, for a change, my project has been ready for weeks! I can hardly wait to see all the picnic inspirations, though.  Care to join me? Here’s a list of all the hoppers!

Monday June 2

Sew Incredibly Crazy

How Art You?

The Reluctant Quilter at Hazelnut Deux

GrammieQ’s

I Piece 2 -Mary

Pig Tales and Quilts

Tuesday June 3

Ridge Top Quilts

A Stitch in Time

Quilting in a Not Shell

Just Let Me Quilt

Creativity Amongst Chaos

Wednesday June 4

Quilt Taffy

Pampered Pettit

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Miss Priss Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

That’s Sew Julie

Thursday June 5

Ella and Nesta’s Little Room

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Jane’s Quilting

Amanda Murphy Design

Quilting Quietly

Words & Stitches

Childlike Fascination

Friday June 6

Quiltscapes

More Stars in Comanche

Stitchin’ By The Lake

Life, Quilts and a Cat Too

Kris Loves Fabric

In The Boon Docks

Living with Purpose

Monday June 9

Cherry Blossoms

The Quilting Queen Online

Mad Quilter’s Disease

Daisy Days

Buzzing and Bumbling

From My Carolina Home

Sew We Quilt

Flags on a Stick Blog Hop (and a giveaway.)

It’s my day! Well, mine and some other wonderful, talented stitchers. As always, I’m honored to find myself in such talented company and oh, so grateful to Madame Samm and Thearica from Pig Tales and Quilts for orchestrating all this fun and to our sponsor, Flags on a Stick. Now, I have to say in the spirit of full disclosure that my flag grew a tad bigger than intended. I started out with 11×17″ drawing but I did the whole thing freehand piecing and well, fabric sometimes has a mind of its own! I’m still excited by my little flag which displays my motto for Spring.

I had to catch a shot between rain showers so the lighting isn’t the best of but it says, “Bee Happy” across the top.  I like the play on words but I also like the idea that happy is something we decide to be, not a circumstance we find ourselves in.  And speaking of happy, I’m so happy you hopped by today!

Also showing their creations today are the following fabulous and talented people:

Bumbleberry Stitches

Quilted Delights

Red Quilts

On the Banks of Frog Creek

Words & Stitches – you are here!

K and S Sweets and Stitching

I know you’ll want to see every stop!  And, now, since you made it this far…how about a giveaway?  I’ve got another 1/2-yard of blue fabric to give away.  (I liked this one so much that I bought a fairly good-sized piece of it but I’m keeping the last piece for me!)

Just leave a comment about anything although, if you have a motto, I’d love to hear it.  I’ll have Mr. Random draw after the hop is over and, yes, I’ll ship internationally and, no, you don’t have to be a follower (but you can if you want!)

Do know that I read each and every comment and will try to respond but something life just gets away from me.

Happy quilting!

Beth

Happy Spring Break, Flags on a Stick, and What I’ve Been Up To

First, let me apologize for not responding to comments on the blog hop.  I can assure you I read every one (and they were great fun!) but I was in the middle a very busy week including lots of small children and a root canal.  Funnily enough, the unknown tooth infection was making me quite unwell and therein lies one of the problems with having thyroid disease.  When you start getting tired and not well, you just assume it’s your thyroid and forget to look for other causes!  So, now that all is beginning to be well in my mouth and the infection is cleared up…I’m off and running on projects!  First on my list is this wedding throw that my mom requested for an upcoming wedding.  The blocks are 24″ each and I’m planning a large scalloped border.  This is a photo from my border auditions.  Unfortunately, you can hardly see the one I ended up choosing because it’s on the very bottom.  This week is Spring Break for us and that translates to no small children and my younger daughter is on a mission trip so I expect to get a lot of sewing done!

Now, on to winners.  Maureen M. was drawn by Craftsy to win the free class and they will have notified her directly.  Mr. Random drew #28 and I’ll be getting Joan’s snail mail address to send the fabric.

Now, if you really liked that blue fabric, you’ll have another shot at winning some of it during the Flags on a Stick blog hop which starts tomorrow.  (I hate to confess this but I have my project all lined out but haven’t done more than pull fabric yet…can you guess what I’m doing today?)

Here’s the complete schedule…I think there is going to be a ton of inspiration coming from this group of talented people!

March  25th
Pig Tales and  Quilts
Fishkopp
Marjorie’s Busy  Corner
Jane’s  Quilting
Seams To Be  Sew

March  26th
Living with  Purpose
Life In The Scrapatch
Devoted Quilter
Made By Me In Red
Quilting Quietly

March  27th
Bumbleberry  Stitches
Quilted  Delights
Red  Quilts
On the Banks of  Frog Creek
Words &  Stitches
K and S Sweets and  Stitching

March  28th
How arT  you?
Just Let Me  Quilt
Robin’s Fabric  Nest
Patchouli Moon Studio
CeLynn’s Sunflower  Patch

Ravelly1

In Stitches and  Seams

March  31st
Grandmama’s  Stories
More Stars in  Comanche 
MooseStashQuilting
Pampered  Pettit
ShirleyC 
Farm Gate Creations

April  1st
Sew Incredibly  Crazy
Quilt Doodle  Designs
Buzzing and  Bumbling
Why Knot  Kwilt?
Creatin’ in the  Sticks

Meadowbrook

April  2nd
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Stitchin’ By The  Lake
Just One  More Stitch
The  Quilting Queen Online
Selina  quilts
Whims And  Fancies

April  3rd
DachsiesWithMoxie
Just Keep  Swimming
The  House on the Side of the Hill
Texas Quilting  Gal
Madame  Samm

Now, I’ve promised myself in an effort to get some Spring cleaning done that I will work 30 minutes on each floor of the house each day this week (and I get to sew for all the rest of the day!)  A la Flylady, I will break it into 15 minutes sections so first I’m doing my downstairs time and then I’m going upstairs to play.  I’m hoping that some Spring has found you where you are…if not in your weather, then in your spirit!

Happy quilting,

Beth