My Briar Rose is Here!

I have been, like most of you, eagerly waiting for this line to come out. When I saw on Heather's blog that you could pre-order a collectors pack of half yard cuts and also get a strawberry print suitable for framing, I jumped on it.  and then started counting the days until July. I know many of you have seen it or bought some, but I simply have to show it to you again, before I cut into it and make my quilt. Yup, no saving this in the stash for whatever perfect future project. Going to make it and use it and love it. Enough chat, here we go:

Flowers and Bees

Bees and Honeycombs

Frogs and Clovers

Frog Scenes

Crickets and Clover

Another Colorway

Cute Strawberries

The Print

The Whole Stack

Okay, that's it. Thank you for indulging me.  Have a great day.

Monday, Monday...

It's been kind of slow going over here lately. I've had 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there, and the occasional hour or two. Truth be told, I haven't really pushed too hard to get more time. Sometimes quilts just need to come along in their own sweet time and rushing makes for a less than satisfactory finish.  So here is an update on what I am up to.

 I finally started quilting my Gumdrops quilt from my Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.  The quilting isn't too difficult, really. My machine was having some hiccups though.

 I had to change the needle, the thread broke, the bobbin thread got changed out when I thought that was the issue. I dusted and oiled it and dusted it again. I thought I would never get the lines over the gumdrops done.

 But I did and now am on to the meandering stitching in the white background. So far, so good and no more problems with the machine.

 I decided to use this wonderful chunk of Loulouthi I had been saving (for Lord only knows what) and I didn't want to cut it up. I had made a pillow out of a piece of it awhile back. The size is absolutely perfect for this quilt.

 I am very happy with the way the stitching looks on the back. It doesn't really detract from the wonderful flowery print.

 I saw these on line somewhere and coveted them. When I was at the hardware store yesterday I saw them.  So I grabbed a 6 pack of them. They are a historic limited edition of the original Ball canning jars.

              I am in love with the colors and am looking for items to fill them with.

 This is also in my sewing room now. I finally got some sand and put it in my trifle bowl, which I never used, and put my seashells from my recent visit to the west coast in it.

 I added a few I already had. They were jus sitting in a can and a jar anyway.  I love it.

                                      Another shot of the Ball Jars.

 This is a quilt I have recently started for my youngest sister.  This is Laurie Wisbrun's Holiday Tweets. I wanted to use this because of the Cardinal's in these prints.  It is slow going to figure out the perfect layout. I have long wanted to do stars like this.

I am only using a few prints from the line. My sister is not a computer person, so I know she won't see this, but just in case, my other sister shouldn't show her. It's a surprise.  Hope you have a good day and a great week. I hope to have more progress to show you soon, as I have 3 more quilt tops done and waiting to be quilted.

What the World Needs Now is Love

Someone needs love, or comfort, a hug or all of these things. As quilters, we respond by making quilts. We sew love into every stitch. I know we have all done it. So when I saw a friend who I felt had a need. I jumped in.  There is a little girl who is almost 5 who needed a quilt. Details aren't important and it isn't my story to share.  But I have been collecting pink fabrics for a while now, in the hopes of making a girly girl quilt, if not for someone else, then for myself.  My husband laughed when I told him what I was doing. "You've just been dying to do that, haven't you?"  Well...yes.  And here it is...

 One hundred forty four 5 inch squares. Some from charm packs or charm swaps, some from my scrap bins and some cut from yardage in my stash. All had been waiting for this moment.

 And pink, because she is a girly girl, purple, because she is a girly girl. The crown, because she likes princesses. I don't really do princesses, but I liked this touch. Two layers of yellow Kona (don't know what shade) and batting, then stitched to the top after the letters were appliqued on.  5 yellow buttons completed it.

 The backing is purple. I could not get it to look purple no matter what. It is a Michael Miller cotton couture. It is the softest cotton fabric I have ever felt. I got it from the Fat Quarter Shop on a 40% off sale last week.  The color is crocus.

 And it fits this quilt perfectly. I quilted it in a dark pink Aurifil thread 1/4 inch from the seems on either side.  I love the look.

 It's soft, girly cuddly and pink and purple.  Everything I was told she liked.  I hope she loves it and soaks up all the Grammie love I put into it, just for her.

 And like every good fairy tale, may she live happily ever after.  The End.

Magic Mail Monday

Don't you just love alliteration? Not all of this came this morning, but one did, so I decided to post it all.  Lots of lovely eye candy.

 First up is a collection of fat quarters from Andover Fabrics. It is the Feathers from the Sun Print line by Alison Glass.  I won this from the Craft Buds blog giveaway. Isn't it beautiful?

 Part of the prize was also a print by Alison and two patterns, which I elected to get via PDF files. So generous, right?

 Next, I entered a giveaway for these, but ended up ordering them myself.  It is a fat quarter bundle of the beautiful Squared elements collection by Art Gallery fabrics. So soft and pretty!

 And look at this! Don't these two lines look so pretty together? I might have to consider this a bit.

                             One more shot of the gorgeousness. Can't resist.

 Last, but not least is an 11 fat quarter collection from Fabri Quilt.  I won this giveaway back at the end of April. What with Market and shipping delays, I just received it last week. It is called simply Black and White.

This is my favorite print in the group and I already have a plan for these lovely black and white prints, as soon as I finish the 6 quilts I am currently working on.  Thanks so much to Andover and Alison Glass and also to Fabri Quilt. Free fabric makes my day!

Friday Big Finish and Post 200 (the one with a giveaway)

Here we are. Another Friday Finish and this is, to me, a big one. I have been working on this for a long time. It is also my 200th post! That, my friends is a lot of words and stitches.  So let's get to it.

Remember when this quilt pattern came out?  I think it must have been a year or more ago. I fell in love with it. There was a quilt along that I wanted to join, but way too much else going on then (16 months ago) for me to start something I knew would take a bit of time.  I finally began my Retro Flowers Quilt in March.  This was the first block I made.



I loved it and I had a whole stack of fabrics pulled to make each flower different, like the one in the picture on the pattern. As I stare at the block and the fabrics I had pulled, I started to like my selections even less. I tried pulling other fabrics. I was spinning my wheels.  Then, either due to some unknown inspiration, or maybe it was a conversation with my hubby, I took an abrupt left turn to this:

I have done several ROYGBIV quilts in my time. It's a theme I revisit a lot because I just love it. I drew the whole thing out and colored it with colored pencils.  Okay...this was it.  I even found a way to keep the first block as part of the quilt.  Yay me!  So here it is, the finished top:

 Please excuse the poor lighting. We have had such a rainy week, complete with downed trees and flooding. I had to take these in my sewing room. I tried without the flash (above) and with the flash (below) which makes a yellowish cast.

 But you get the idea. There are small dots and flowers in here, although you can't really see them in these pictures.  But I L-O-V-E it so much. I have even planned how I will quilt it, as soon as I finish one more WIP top and quilt the other two tops waiting in the wings.

 Here is a bit of a close up. You can see that sometimes, my seems met up perfectly.

 And sometimes they did not.  It also shows more on the darker colors.  But I don't mind at all.

Every time I started a new color, I got excited all over again.  I think that helped me keep going.

Now on to the second item of my post. To celebrate my 200th post I am going to have a giveaway. I absolutely love Alicia Paulson and her blog, Posie Gets Cozy. She is the creator of Maggie Rabbit and the lovely Daisy Chain ABC sampler. She also has lots of great stuff in her shop, Rosie Little Things. I am going to offer the winner (chosen by Random Number Generator) $20 to spend in Alicia's shop.  This giveaway is open to any and all. The winner will pay any difference between the prize and the total, including shipping of items.

To win, and you must answer the question to win (my party, my rules) go visit Alicia's shop and tell me what you might choose if you win. That's it.  Giveaway is open until next Friday, July 12 at 5 pm EDT.  Thanks for sticking with me. Now go look at Alicia's shop!
WINNER!!!! Fiona of Celtic Thistle is the winner as chosen by random number generator.  Congratulations! Thanks to everyone for stopping by. I hope you stick with me in the future.

I'm Putting My Stamp on It!

Welcome to my day on the stamp blog hop. Sew many thanks to Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt and Thearica of Pig Tales and Quilts for being such great cheerleaders for us. This has been such a fun hop. I love the ones that are sew different like this. Sew here we go.  I immediately wanted to do something rainbow, since I love rainbows.  The first thing I did was sew some strips together for a background.

 Then I had to think of something to applique onto it. I stared at it for several days before I thought of this...my car. I love my little yellow VW beetle. So I found a line drawing of one on line and used it to make my applique.

 There is no particular reason I chose 5 cents for the stamp price. It just came to me. I used my wavy rotary cutting blade to get the white edging for the stamp.

 In retrospect, I should have lined the beetle so you can't see the stripes behind the car. Oh well...

 And after I fused everything on the stamp, I stitched around all the car parts with yellow thread for the body and grey thread for the wheels and windows.

There you have it, my stamp. I love it so much, but I am going to send it to my sister-in-law, Sally. She too has a yellow beetle that she loves and yellow is also her favorite color. So off to Vermont it goes.  If you are keeping track, this is post 199, so my next post will be 200 and will have a special giveaway. Look for it on Friday.

Now go and visit all the other lovely stamp makers today.

July 2

Sew and Sow Farm 

fishkopp

Scraps of Life

Meadowbrook

Katie and Kwilts 

Em's Scrap Bag  

GrammieQ's

How ART you?

BumbleberryStitches

A Stitch in Time