CRAZY 9 PATCH QAYG - Quick Update

The Crazy-Beasty is almost finished! I'm not sure, but I think it has been in-process for about 8 years! Yikes. Talk about a UFO!  All four borders are now attached - a better picture will follow when I get the binding on.

Crazy9Patch: 3 borders attached

It might take awhile to decide on the binding fabric. . . more pictures will follow in another post showing the process of putting this lap quilt together.  It is a good technique. I love that it is easier to baste, quilt and complete than more traditional methods. I don't do every quilt this way, but it is a nice technique to have in one's bag of tricks.

Missy "helping" me sew on the sashing strips

Don't forget to enter the BlogHop Drawing.  Some nice gifties are being offered. Please see the button on my side bar to take you to the QuiltingGallery for a list of ALL the blogs participating.  Thank you, Michele, for hosting! You must leave your comment on my original post HERE to be in the drawings. Good luck, everyone.

Hope you have a lovely weekend planned and will find some time to stitch. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

AAQI: Quilt Arrives & BlogHop

The most marvelous little quilt came in the mail the other day. I was the lucky one to bid and buy "Schizostylis Coccinea Major," the fabulous quilt handmade by Elly Dunbar of Scotland. Elly's work is absolutely incredible and so is her original design which is based on a flower in her garden. I just love it. Thank you for designing, creating, and donating this wonderful quilt, Elly. I will treasure it always.

AAQI: Schizostylis Coccinea Major, by Elly Dunbar, Scotland, UK

AAQI: Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, was founded several years ago by Ami Simms.  AAQI is run entirely by volunteers and ALL profits fund Alzheimer's research.

Remember, the BlogHop is still running and doesn't close until September 3rd. A winner will be choosen on Sept 4th. Please see the original post HERE. You MUST put your comment on the original post to enter the drawing. Good luck everyone.

Some Menu Fun is below.  Today I hope to attach another border on my QAYG Crazy9Patch. . .so, until next time, let's go stitch something!

Quilty Hugs,

MENU FUN:

SuperVeggy Marinara Sauce

Last night I thought: If I can make Veggie Soup, why not just saute a bunch of veggies and make an enhanced Marinara Sauce... why not, indeed. Add some garlic and oregano, organic tomatoes and serve over organic whole wheat pasta. Delish!

BLOG HOP: Another PRIZE Added!!!

The current Back To School BlogHop is going full blast and is  hosted by Michele at QuiltingGallery - thanks, Michele! Lot's of activity and hopping about! lol.  Because there have been so many comments, I've decided to add another PRIZE!

2nd Prize: HoneyRoll + Scissors

** Stainless Steel Scissors on a Pink Lanyard **

and

** Moda HoneyBun SweetRoll:

"ZippityDooDah" by SandyGervais**

I will draw TWO names on September 4th:

Winner # 1: Batik fabrics and Gingher Scissors, and

Winner #2: HoneyRoll and Scissors [pictured above]

I will ship International. Please understand - if the winner is International, I will have to unwrap the HoneyRoll to get it to fit inside a Priority Mail Envelope! This will keep the postage costs manageable. lol

Remember to be eligible for the drawing, you must comment on original post by CLICKING HERE.

Good luck everyone and Happy Hopping!

Until next time. . .
Quilty Hugs,

UFO SUNDAY! More FMQ... I'm loving this!

Check out the nifty new button on my Left Side Bar... UFO Sunday! Leah Day, of the Free Motion Quilting Project fame, made a new button and is encouraging people to finish stuff. Yep, I think this might help me get some more projects actually finished. How about you?

I spent about 30 minutes earlier today FMQ on the last border for my Crazy9Patch quilt. TaDah! All four borders are quilted. I ran out of thread so just used something 'similar'. Once quilted it looked ok. I was surprised. lol. Lesson learned.

Back:  Closeup of my DRIZZLING. I like the texture.

Is the quilting perfect? Absolutely NOT! But, hey, I think it is reasonably acceptable. I figure I can only improve from here... if I keep practicing that is!

Back: Tension is off a tad and a few stitches are "their own size".

Thread tension... I simply must remember to check this before I "drizzle" all over the piece I'm quilting. "Drizzle", that's what I call the FMQ I am doing right now. Can't call it meandering [not random enough]. Certainly can't call it Stippling... too big! So DRIZZLE... and that's good enough for me for right now.

How about you? How are you coming along this beautiful Sunday? Do you have a UFO to work on?

Oh... don't forget to enter the BLOG-HOP GIVEAWAY on this blog, if you haven't yet... click HERE to get to that post and enter the drawing.

Until next time. . .
Quilty Hugs,

GIVE-A-WAY: Gingher Scissors, Batik Fabrics..."Back To School Blog Hop Party"

It is GIVE-A-WAY time.
The Back To School Blog Hop Party begins this weekend!

 

My gift to one lucky Blog-Hopper is:

* Gingher Stork Scissors w/Leather pouch *

* Moda Charm Pack, Sonnet Collection, 45 pieces*

* 2 Batik FQs*

* 20 Batik charm squares*

 



It is real easy to ENTER:
1) Leave a COMMENT on this post saying you are a FOLLOWER, or have become one.
{NOTE: Subscribing by email is very nice, but doesn't show up in the public Follow Chart thingy... please add yourself there to be eligible for the drawing. Thank you and welcome to my blog!}

That's it! What could be easier?!

**EVERYONE may enter:

USA and INTERNATIONAL**

 

Give-A-Way runs from Saturday, 25 August - through Monday, September 3rd at NOON, Pacific Time. 

Winner will be announced here on Tuesday, Sept 4th. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond with their name and address. Or, a new comment will be drawn. Please be sure I have a way to contact you!  If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email addy in your comment!  Example: "your name [at] yahoo [dot] com."  I will ship International so everyone can enter.  Good luck, everyone, and happy hopping!

Click over to the Quilting Gallery blog HERE.  A list of all participating blogs is shown there... thanks, Michele! Let's go have some fun!

A second PRIZE package has been ADDED to the BlogHop drawing! You can see it by clicking HERE.  But, FIRST, before you click away, please remember to leave your comment right here on this original post to be in the drawing for both prize gifts. I just thought with so many comments, that another prize was a good idea!

CONGRATULATIONS to LAURA who became the 100th follower yesterday!! Thank you, Laura - a special little thank you gift has been sent to you.

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

FMQ the QAYG Crazy 9 Patch. . .& BlogHop Party starting soon!

Today has been productive. Yippee... love that! Was able to get the last three borders basted for my UFO-Crazy9P. Here's an easy trick: open two brown paper bags to protect ironing board cover; baste using 505 Spray. Worked great... no glue mess. Yeah!  Even got one more border quilted. That makes two down; two to go.

 QAYG Crazy9Patch - Basting the borders

I can't tell you how much FUN I am having FMQing these borders. First I warm up on a potholder, then just go at it! I'm having the time of my life and the whole time I'm telling myself, "self... you are actually doing this!". Unbelievable. I am Happy Dancing. Golly, why in the world did I procrastinate so long??

More fun news: very very soon the Celebrate Back To School Blog Hop Party will open!! Blog hops are always fun and this time there will be loads of FREE goodies given away. Love that! The button is on my upper left sidebar... check it out! I will be offering some nice gifties on this blog... so do come back on August 25th!

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

IT'S HERE! Happy Mail all the way from Australia

Yesterday's Happy Mail brought lovely goodies all the way from Kris in Australia. I was the lucky winner of the June OPAM drawing. The fabric is so soft and pretty and comes with coordinating embroidery floss and a pattern! Wow. THANK YOU so much Kris and Peg. I will treasure this gift and put it to good use!

A darling pattern designed by Kris

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

THANK YOU... Placemats DONE!

Thank you for the many great suggestions on how to quilt these placemats. They are not perfect, but they are DONE! lol. By the time I really got in the groove and my stitches were looking good... I was done! Too funny.

Today I added a little bit of meandering in a couple of places. It took several thread-color changes, but all I was trying for was function [hold batting together] and texture.

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the wonderful advice. Until next time. . .



Quilty Hugs,

NEW SWAP - time is running out to sign up

If you want to participate in the Embroidery Mini Swap [design by Lenna Green of Stitching Cow], then you need to act fast! The signups close tomorrow, Wednesday, August 22. It's going to be fun. A clickable button is on my left side bar.



Linking with: Freemotion By The River - click over and see what everyone else is up to today.
Until next time. ..

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MAIL and . . .

Today the postal carrier brought some Happy Mail! Fun stuff:

Siggy from International Siggy Swap

A great little Siggy from Sandie - part of the International Siggy Swap.  Thank you, Sandie. Love the darling thimble fabric!

Robert Kaufman Layer Cake

And, above, a 10" layer cake bundle of Christmas fabric from the Deal of the Day at Missouri Star Quilt Company. I have no affiliation - just a happy customer.

Good news: got another border batted up and ready for FMQ.  It's a bit hot this afternoon, so maybe tonight or early tomorrow morning it will "get it's thread".  I am bound and determined to get my quilting MoJo running again! lol. This UFO is so old that part of the fabric has faded... do you have projects like this?? Older than dirt?!

Crazy9P - QAYG project's first outside border

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

ANTIQUE 1840 HEXIE QUILT. . .

This lovely antique Hexie quilt still has the papers inside that were used to sew it together! It is fun to try and read some of the dates. Some of the paper is recycled letters. Cool. This quilt is very very large and due to age it is also quite fragile. Isn't it lovely?

Hexie Mosaic Quilt, 1840

Closeup... the center block is pieced from Velvet & Silks

Hexie Quilt 1840

It is still quite hot here, but I have been FMQ anyway. Finished the placemats I was working on -- will post some pics in a bit. Thanks to all who left comments and made suggestions. I really appreciate your input.

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

OPINION, PLEASE. . . How to quilt placemats

Hello everyone! Did you think I fell off the edge of the planet? Nope. But it's been so hot I haven't been working on my usual stuff. Right now at 6:45 pm, it is still 85 in the house! Yikes. Oh well, fans are whirling away which makes it tolerable.

Well I sure have my nerve! lol. Haven't posted in 10 days and now I'm asking for help! I sure do hope someone out there in blogland has some ideas and is willing to share. The problem is how to quilt the center of some placemats that my Quild is making.  We are making more than 200 placemats to be delivered to seniors over the upcoming holidays. Out of necessity these need to be made rather quickly, so to eliminate attaching binding, I have done the layer/stitch/birth technique. To help the edges have a nice finish, I added topstitching 3/8 inch from the edge [please see the second picture below]. 

Placemats for Seniors - Holiday Season 2012

Closeup of the edge finish:

Now what?? The problem is what to quilt in the CENTER of the circle after stitching the circle shape itself???  Would some rather large meandering look ok? Has anyone tried a meander over the top of a "pictoral" panel... does it look ok? Maybe just a simple grid across the whole thing???  Oh, I should mention the batting is Warm&Natural, so not a lot of quilting is necessary. The fabrics were chosen so the placemats could be used for more than the Holidays... check out the back:

Placemat back

Thank you for any advice or suggestions you can provide.  Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

I WON - Wow! Batiks Galore

WOWZER!  Last week I was one of three lucky winners at Connie's blog: Quilting By The River.  Connecting Threads sponsored the give-a-way - three of them! Thank you so much, Connie!  And thank you, Connecting Threads!

24 Gorgeous batiks from Connecting Threads

As I was folding the fabrics into little squares, I just couldn't get over the soft touch. Gorgeous gorgeous fabric and I will definitely be ordering more fabric from Connecting Threads - especially Batiks!! Hmmm, now to decide how to use these beauties. Any ideas?

All the fabrics came rolled together... so yummy looking

This are EXTRA! Odd bits from cutting the FQs - they included them, too! Wow!

That's all for today. Thank you so much for stopping by to visit. Until next time. . .

Linking to: Connie @ Quilting By The River Tuesday Linky Party

Quilty Hugs,

"QUILTED NOTIONS" - An EQ7 project

Super quickie post:  Designing a quilt with Sewing Notions all over it. . . just for fun!

"Quilted Notions" by C. Forest - designed in EQ7 as part of Quilt University class.


And the little label that goes with it:

Label designed in EQ7 as part of Quilt University class.

Oh btw, for those of you with eagle eyes... Yes!... I did leave off the quilting lines in the above quilt. While "cleaning up" my Sketchbook, I mistakenly deleted the completed quilt! Note to self: be more careful with 'Right Click' when deleting stuff. lol. 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,