Very Little Quilting - But Great Time with Friends

We try to get together once a month but sometimes that doesn't always happen with busy schedules. But when we do it is always a sweet reunion. We have deemed ourselves as the FLAW (Former Ladies At Work). We were all on staff with a crisis pregnancy center.

This past Saturday we who live in Charlotte took a road trip to Winston Salem to attend an Easter program and visit our former Director who now lives in Winston Salem, NC. One of us is missing since she is involved in her own church's Easter program. Lunch was at the Village Tavern and their Spinach Chicken Salad was wonderful! If ever in that area I would highly recommend the restaurant.

After chatting and visiting we left to go to the Easter program at Calvary Baptist in Winston Salem. The program was well done with a crucifixion scene that was so close to real that played on the emotions and served as a reminder the huge sacrifice Jesus made to atone for us. Prior to that scene Jesus rode in on a beautiful white donkey while the believers waved palm branches honoring him as the king.

To conclude our time we all went to view Bobbie's new home while she served up a small cream cheese and chocolate dessert to get us home. Below is a picture of the stage before the program began. 

Sunday, was such a blustering day of rain and wind. When the weather changes so dramatically I end up with headache that debilitates, thus I was not able to do much quilting. When I was feeling better we had an unannounced visitor at the door.

WIP Wednesday & A Lovely Year of Finishes

Last evening I finished the backing for my quilt in progress and sandwiched and pinned this monstrosity of a quilt. Look at the folded picture you can see it is going to be a heavy quilt. It measures 78" x 97" using queen size 100% Warm and Natural batting.

While rolling all over the floor pin basting the quilt I changed my plans on how to quilt it. I thought I would line quilt it. I am going to stitch in the ditch the frames and sashing and possibly line stitch in the sashing as well. For each of the t-shirts I want to match the thread and do large stipple quilting. I think if I lined quilted through the shirts that it will take away rather than enhance the t-shirts.

Every step completed seems like major progress! Yet I'm chomping at the bit to start something else. For A Lovely Year of Finishes I included t additional quilt tops to be finished. It will be a race to finish with only 11 days left in the month. I have 2 more blocks to make. I may need to frame them since I wasn't consistent with background fabric to pull the blocks together.

I will be sharing these WIPs at "freshly pieced" and "Fiber of All Sorts."
Thanks to both for hosting these linky parties!

Happy St. Patrick's Day & Happy International Quilting Week

Saturday evening we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by attending a Celtic Music Festival with the Irish Temperance at Latta Plantation, a great setting for the festival. We tapped our foot and we sang along to a couple of songs too, Molly Malone for one. There was a baby who stole my heart. Even he couldn't resist the catchy music clapping and dancing.

Peat was burning, a new and wonderful aroma for me. The food vendor used peat shipped in from Ireland to cook his BBQ. I had his wonderful Shephard's Pie since he had sold out of his BBQ and Haggis! When I learned what Haggis was I decided I hadn't missed out on it! I debated the Sticky Toffee cake coated in caramel and whipped cream. All the aesthetics were available especially with many in kilts and costume.

Anyone ever have Irn Bru? It is a Scottish soft drink with a different taste! It was soooo good. It was a fun and delightful evening.

Saturday was International Quilt Day! No sewing for me! instead I groomed my dog. I had sewn quite a bit through the week.  As much as I love to sew I needed a diversion and the Celtic Music Festival was the answer. I hope to complete the backing to a quilt today then again maybe not as I am feeling tired today. We went to Cracker Barrel after church today and feel I need a day to kick back.

Happy Sunday, St. Patrick's Day and National Quilting Week,

Winner of Winter Blues Blog Hop is. . . .

Thank you all who hopped their way to enter to win my Jelly Roll giveaway. It certainly felt like a party all week long meeting new quilters and crafters either by your visiting me or me visiting those who participated in the Quilting Gallery's Winter Blues Blog Hop Party.

A special thank you to Michelle from Quilting Gallery for her time to organize the blog hop.

I now have the longest readers list ever! And at a time when I finally began to appreciate Google Reader. Last evening I surprised my husband by being awake at midnight. I was having so much fun reading all the new posts from my new quilting followers. Then I learned Google Reader will be no more after June 1st. So now I have enrolled with Feedly and reread your messages via that reader. It was easy to transfer over. Whew!

The winner is number 19 out of 132.

Her name is Julie!

Her winning comment: "I follow through Google"

In her following message she stated she loved the Spring Batiks.

Congratulations Julie!

I think they are much prettier than the picture! 

So if you read this before I email please send me your mailing address!

Fusible Letters Tutorial

On Pinterest I came across a wonderful idea! It looked so simple! Not so I learned because there was a lot of missing information or an assumption that one knew how to find outlined letters and knew how to flip them.

I will show you how I finally accomplished making the fusible letters for the backing of Caleb's quilt.

In order to do this I had to use two different software programs, MS Word and MS Publisher. This was due to the fact when one inserts "Word Art" I had differing options on each program, ones that were not shared. Strange but true! Maybe you will have more success using just one program. If so please feel free to share. I love for things to be easier and more efficient.

Some other things to know before beginning:

• Heat N Bond for the letters to fuse to the fabric.
• Lightweight non woven Pellon for stabilizing in order to stitch.
• Used a decorative stitch to stitch the letters after fusing. It was a combo of narrow zig zags and after several a stitch that jutted out. I did not want a close applique stitch. Just needed something to adhere and yet look nice.
• I traced the letters using a light box on to the back of the Heat N Bond.

The tutorial that I found recommended printing on the back of the Heat n' Bond in your printer. I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS!! My printer now will not feed paper even after cleaning the rollers. I will try one more time. If  one more cleaning doesn't clean it I will have to purchase a new one.

Creating the Letters

 

• Beginning with MS Word change the paper size to 8.5 " x 8.5" or a size that will give your desired letter size. I wanted large! My letters are 5 - 5.5 inches. 
• Next I inserted as many pages as needed for differing letters. Since you are tracing you only need one per letter. If making smaller letters you may be able to have 2 letters per page.

 

•  Insert "Word Art". It is on the menu bar under "Insert". Look to the right side and find the "A" sitting tipped. Choose the Word Art template that outlines letters without fill. In the picture below it is the very first one. In Word I have this option in Publisher it is totally something different. If you have this view in Publisher I would skip Word and begin in Publisher.

• Follow through the process via your selected WordArt template. Once on your page grab the lower right corner to stretch to desired size.

• I sized the lowercase smaller than the uppercase. Use the rulers to scale the letters so they are the same size.
• From here I copied and pasted the letters to Publisher in order to flip the letters. 

•  Under "Arrange" on the tool bar choose the "Rotate or Flip" and flip it horizontally.

•  Print the letter and place a piece of Heat N Bond using a light box (I have a florescent light under the plexiglass that is even with my sewing table around my set in sewing machine) and trace the letter on the paper side of Heat N Bond.
• Trim the excess paper and pull the backing off and iron to your fabric.

•  Now iron the fabric letters to your background fabric.
• Once the letters were ironed on I pinned along the top and bottom of each letter so I knew where to position the iron stabilizer on the backside.
• Begin stitching around your letters.

•  After stitching cutaway or tear the excess stabilizer.

 If your had read my previous message you will notice that I had planned to piece the letters. I prefer the look of the fusible letters and it was much faster than piecing them.

Thanks for stopping by. Love your comments.

P.S. I have Quilting Gallery Blog Hopping opened for 1 more day. If you want to enter for a chance to win a free jelly roll go here.

I am going to Whoop it up a bit even though the backing is not completely finished. I ran out of fabric. But I have been thinking about how to use letters for a couple of years in quilts for my grandsons. I finally did it! Can I Get a Whoop Whoop is a link party over at Sarah's blog, Confesssions of a Fabric Addict. She is out partying at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster.

Baseball T-Shirt Update

Hello Winter Blues Blog Hoppers!
It certainly has been fun visiting all the blogs and sites meeting new quilters and crafters. I am only about half way through the list with the goal to visit all participant's site. I just have to do it in chunks. So if you have come to see what I am giving away please go here.

I am whooping it up! The baseball t-shirt quilt top is finished! 

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep? That was me this morning. So I began to think about the next step to finish this quilt. I was thinking along the lines of the exported picture from Electric Quilt for the back of the quilt. Wouldn't that make it more special? I have a patch from one of Caleb's t-shirts that will work great in the middle of the star.  

So what do you think?

This quilt is going to be a bear to quilt since it is so heavy!! 

I'm thinking of line or grid quilting it.

Today is Linky Tuesday at Connie's Freemotion by the River's blog.   Stop by and take a peek at others great creations. And it is Sew Cute Tuesday at Better Off Threads! Fun stop as well!

Thanks for stopping by. If you haven't entered for the giveaway be sure to do that before leaving.

Have a great day!

Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop Party w/Give-Aways

Michelle at Quilting Gallery is organizing 

another Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways!

 

What a great way to beat those Winter Blues! 

For many of you it is snow, snow and more snow.

Here in Charlotte it is rain, rain and overcast days!

 I can't think of a better way of brightening up our days, can you?

For those who are new to my blog here are two of my recent finishes.
 Currently I am working on a baseball t-shirt quilt.

So Let's Party and Have Some Fun!

A few minor details before we begin:

• Party begins Friday March 8 and ends March 15. 
• The drawing will be March 16.  
• Your gift will be in the mail by March 20. 
• Random Generator will determine who the winner will be.
• Don't forget to visit Quilting Gallery to see all the participants (203) in the Blog Hop Party. 

Now let's move on to more fun stuff!

  Grab a cupcake - in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day!
I'm Irish descent so I need to celebrate! Do a jig! Well I may shake it a bit!
Put on the Celtic Music!

Recipe at Loves to Eat.

 The Give-Away!

Your choice of one of these pretty Jelly Rolls.

Both are Fabric Palette Jellies from JoAnn Fabrics.  

Each roll contains twenty 2- 1/2x42 inch strips of high-quality 100% cotton fabric.

Aren't they pretty? 

Spring Prints

Spring Batik-Like

So what must you do?

(1) Follow me and in your comment tell me how you are following me.
(2 ) Leave a comment telling which jelly roll you prefer.

Second Chance - Not a Requirement

  Follow me on Pinterest and return to comment. 

Irish Blessings:
May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.

May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow. May the soft winds freshen your spirit. May the sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you, and may God enfold you in the mantle of His love. 

Wishing you Luck and Blessings! 

March 2013 Plan WIP - A Lovely Year of Finishes

A Lovely Year of Finishes @ Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs are hosting this linky party. They only require that you post one project to finish for the month. Since I need to push myself a bit and my first project will be completed before the end of the month I am expanding my list.  I have so many to choose from!! In 2012 I led another WIP/UFO Challenge and the majority on my list in 2012 made the 2013 list. Ahhh! starting a business at home put me behind. I hope to have many finishes in 2013. Thank you to Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs for this wonderful incentive.

Baseball T-Shirt Quilt

The first quilt I want to complete is the baseball t-shirt quilt. More on this quilt here and here. Overall making a t-shirt quilt is quicker to make, not necessarily easier dealing with stretchy fabric and a need to stabilize it. But I am so excited about making this quilt (2 more after this one)! One for each grandson. I have been storing their shirts in bags that has been taking up closet space. Time to get them finish.

God's Perpetual Dance Quilt

In a need for something different I want to create something new before tackling t-shirt quilt 2 and 3. This is the next planned quilt. I have one block sewn and many more to make. The stars are paper pieced and the rest of the quilt is pieced. Paper piecing is bit more time consuming but so well worth it. I created the quilt block and pattern on Electric Quilt. I am looking forward actually excited to see what it will look like made up. A block alone doesn't give the overall movement of the quilt. More about God's Perpetual Dance Quilt here. I only plan to create the quilt top in March.

Craftsy BOM 2012

As you can see they are blocks waiting to be sewn together. I believe I still have December's blocks to create as well. You may recognize them if you participated in Amy Gibson's Craftsy Block of the Month. Each month focused on a new quilting block technique such as hexies, stripping, curves, dresden plates, asteriks, and etc. It was so fun! I hope to create the quilt top only or possibly sandwiching it as well.

Redwork

In 2012 I completed all 12 Redwork Winter Twitterings blocks designed by Pearl Louise Krush. I am so excited about finishing this quilt top too! It was nice to have handwork while watching tv with my hubby. The quilt top will have variable stars, windmills, on-point squares and 4 blocks.   

This is quite an ambitious list!! If there is no plan or a plan written down little gets accomplished in my day to day!

Let us see what March will bring in finishes!

Happy Quilting and sending wishes to all that they too will complete their March goals. See you at A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Quilts and our Pets

I couldn't resist! 

Quokka Quilts is hosting a 

Self Indulgent Doggy Pictures With Our Quilts 

Linky Party!

I know I had plenty of those! Cassie is always there to help when working with quilts while on the floor, fast to assist in picture taking or enjoying them herself. 

Interesting to see the pictures together - some days her hair was looking great and some were bad hair days. 

Pictures always show her mood, either delighted to help, or her saying please don't disturb me I'm trying to catch up with my beauty sleep or how soon will this ride be over with.

Below are pictures of Cassie in the garden - which she absolutely loves and a couple of pictures when she was a puppy. Oh she was so cute!

Thank you for indulging with me!

Happy Quilting

Progress on Baseball t-Shirt Quilt

Since my last posting I completed cutting the shirt panels and began piecing. 2 rows out of 5 are now completed!

 Don't you love how the frames and frame shadowing 

showcases each t-shirt panel? 

I sent an email to my son, Ty, and he in turn shared it with Caleb, his son, my grandson. 

Both responded,

"How cool is that!"

Want to meet Caleb? If so go here.

Today is "Let's Get Acquainted Monday".

So if you have a couple moments visit Plum and June's blog who is hosting Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up. She is making some darling scarves and of course there are other's joining up with the linky party who are wanting to show and tell their recent creations!

Tuesday is Linky Tuesday Freemotion by the River and Sew Cute Tuesday @ Better Off Thread. 
Both of these blogs have fantastic finishes, Connie at Tuesday Freemotion by the River finished her Garden Fence and Janice at Better Off Thread finished her fabulous Geese in the Forest quilt.
Happy Quilting!

Such a Sew and Sew: A Stitch in Time is hosting a linky party for March finishes! I hope to have this baseball t-shirt quilt done by the end of the month.



The icon will direct you WIP wednesday at fresly pieced. And ohhhh while at that site I saw Lee's gorgeous quilts as well as  some pictures with the links. Well worth the visit!