My Friday Finish is...Crochet!

I have been secretly crocheting this fun project since just after Christmas. My Sweet oldest grandson, V, loves Calvin and Hobbes. He has two of the books and reads them incessantly. I found this pattern on line just before Christmas, but there was not time to make it for Christmas. Sew, without further ado, I present...Hobbes, for my little Calvin:

      Here he is on the couch.  He is so cute, it makes me smile every time I see him.

           Doesn't he look smart, wearing Grammie's glasses? I think he does.

 Here he is, helping me at the computer while I was reading some of my favorite blogs.

 And you have to love his little green scarf.  It did just snow here in NC, so he needs it to keep warm.

Sweet Hobbes

And that is the end.  Hope you have a lovely day and I will see you soon. Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it Friday.

WIPs - WOW !

Lots of things have popped up in the last week. Let's get started, shall we?  Remember this quilt?

Well when it was finished. I was left with a lot of these little pieces and no idea what to do with them.

There were actually 192 of them I think. I kept trying to come up with something to do with them. I reached out to Amanda Jean for some advice.  I thought about it some more.  Then I paired them up and stitched them together.

And this is the pile. I need to clip all those curves and turn them and press them.  When that is done, they will meet up with these guys...

More on that later.  I also worked on two other WIPs this week.  First, this is the quilt I am working on for Baby B. I bought this cute Sasparilla fabric at the end of December, before my fabric fast.

 I knew I wanted to make him a quilt with it, but no plan in mind until it got here and I started thinking about it.  I came up with a sort of star pattern and sketched it out on graph paper.  I liked it so I started cutting.

 Well, I can't count very well and I don't have enough fabric to pull this off.  All I have is cut out, so too late to change course.  So (hangs head in shame) I had to order more of 4 of the fabrics. I only ordered 1/2 yards of each, the smallest I could get. I had to get them from two different places to get all four. It felt so wrong to order fabric. But I have to get this finished somehow. So...moving on...

 And I am a bit more that half way finished with the quilting on last Wednesday's WIP. At my hubby's suggestion, I am quilting swirls.

If you look closely, you can see the swirls are taken from the aqua swirly fabric in the quilt.  This is turning out so cool. Well, that's it for me this week. Maybe by next week at least one of these will be a finish. We are expecting snow and ice here in the next 48 hours. I just hope the power stays on. Stay warm, ya'll. Talk to you soon. Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Sunday Stash #5

This is number 5 for me. I was too crazy busy last week to get pictures, so I missed out. I went looking in my stash to see what I could share and I found these lovely Sara Jane fabrics.

 I love Sara Jane's sweet prints that bring back so many childhood memories. I have no plan for any of these (that's why I am fabric fasting) but they are too cute to resist.

 Definitely a more girly print, and I only have grandsons, so they may sit for a bit longer.  But eventually I will make something.

It is a pretty nice little stack. I want to use the panels whole, so it will take some careful planning.
Thanks for stopping by. Linking up with Sunday Stash.

My MSBHQAL Friday Finish

This is my second post today. I was in a blog hop with Madam Samm and all the creative ladies that hop on Sew We Quilt this morning, but I couldn't not post my Friday finish and link up with Crazy Mom Quilts. So here we go...and let me tell you these pictures are not the best. I had no one here to hold up the quilt and this is the only non rainy day I am going to get.

 She's a beauty! Thirty blocks and enough sashing and borders to make her fit my queen size bed.  I put one green block in each corner. There are some Pearl Bracelets in there and some Bonnie and Camille Vintage Modern.

 Since it is such a linear quilt, I wanted the quilting to have some curve to it. I chose an edge to edge pattern of flowers, leaves and berries.  It took me awhile to be able to afford to have this quilted, but it was worth the wait. I dropped it off on a Monday and it was ready by Thursday afternoon. I had to wait to pick it up on Monday, but I came right home and made the binding which I machine stitched.

I had this beauty on the bed for us to use that very night. My hubby loves it too. The top thread used is a shimmery celery green and a medium grey is on the back.

 I bound the edges in the same Kona Medium Grey that I used for the sashing and borders. I didn't want anything to drag your eye to the edge. This is already one busy quilt.

 I used a piece of Kona Ash to extend the back and appliqued 5 blocks made from scraps onto it.

Now all I have to do  is get my bedroom repainted to the pale grey I want so this quilt looks right at home. It really doesn't go with the blue walls.

 I have to say, this is one of my all time favorite quilts and I really want to make another, although smaller, one of these. Each block is a masterpiece.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to Molli Sparkles for the brilliant sparkly idea of the QAL and Anne at Play Crafts for the wonderful pattern she let us use. I am thrilled with the outcome. Linking up to Finish it up Friday.

Don't Let the Door Stop You! Last Day

Let me first say that this has been a wonderful hop. Madam Samm , I don't know how many more great hop ideas you have, but I hope it's a lot. This one has been such fun. And Carla, you are just the best cheerleader and a darn good doorstop maker yourself. All while keeping two hops running smoothly. Thanks ladies!

As soon as I heard about this hop, an idea popped in to my head. This is North Carolina, after all, so I had to make a lighthouse.  I started with this:

 This is a very heavy bottle that once held either German wine or beer. It is full of sand and was once made into a lamp, but now just has a cork in it to hold the sand in. My husband has had these since before he met me.  And I have used it as a doorstop, but now to dress it up.

I took some muslin and sandwiched some batting in there, pinned on some black Kona and got to stitching. Sadly, I did not photograph the rest of the process for you.  But, moving onward...

 I pebble quilted the base in white so it would look like it was made of stones and the black areas are pebble quilted in black.  The light is made of a rectangle of muslin, quilted to look like rectangular windows and the roof  I used black on top and brown in the bobbin to quilt the shingles.  The brow looked better, so it became the top.

 The sun hasn't been out here much in the last couple of weeks, but I finally had some rain free time with high clouds to photograph outside.

 Here you can see the roof and the light a bit better. the light is resting on a platform made of felt covered cardboard.

Happy beach days to you...well, maybe soon. Now hop on to see the rest of my friends creations.

 GrammieQs

Pickles Quilting

Made by Me in Red
 
A Passion for Applique

Living With Purpose

Tipsy Teacup Creations

Sew We Quilt

WIP Wednesday-Look What I Found

I had made a goal last year to try and quilt all the tops I had in my closet. I did get a few done, but not all. I think when I started there were 7 or 8 of them. Now I am down to the last couple of tops and this is one of them. I pulled it out and ironed it Monday. I made the backing. And Tuesday, I basted it.

 I pieced this top about 5 years ago. I got the pattern from a book called New Cuts for New Quilts.  It is a book by  Karla Alexander for That Patchwork Place. You cut the squares and then stack them up in 10 decks of 8 squares. You cut a wonky 9 patch in this case, and then shuffle the pieces to make the blocks. Lots more great ideas in this book. This is the only one I have done. Might have to pull it out again.

 This picture is more true to the colors of the fabrics. I love love love yellow. Especially a warm yellow like this. And the blues, greans and aquas just set it off so nicely.

 When I took it out, I was struck again by how much I loved the colors. I am so excited to finally be quilting this one.

 I basted pretty heavily, for me. After some discussion with my sweet hubby, we agreed that this quilt needs a curving quilting design. I am going to do a small practice piece to see if I can mimic the swirls on the beautiful. vibrant aqua.

Omalley approves of the quilt. He doesn't think it needs a thing to be ready to lie on.  He is wrong. I will liberate it from him and get my quilting on.  Talk to you soon.
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Blogging vs. Instagram

This is not my normal post. In fact, I am going to get up on my soap box, so if you don't want to hear this, walk away now.  I was reading a blog the other day and the writer said she mostly instagrams these days because it is so much more convenient, but eventually she would be back to her blog for those of us who do not instagram. Now I have been debating this with myself for a bit, but this one post pushed me to say something here.

When I choose to follow and support another blogger, I do it because I love their style and enjoy seeing their beautiful work. It inspires me in my own work. In fact, since I entered the bloggy world, I dare say I have been much more creative and prolific in my quilting. I have learned a lot about modern quilting, art, and who I am as a quilter. This is a good thing.  And after I follow a blogger for a while, I start to think of them as a friend and I comment and care about how they are. I am happy to be supportive of their endeavors, whatever direction they may take.

Occasionally, I stop following a blog. This happens for several reasons: a) they stop posting...for months or even a year. I am patient, but only so much so. b) their creative process changes so much that it no longer calls to me in the same way.  c) my creative process changes so that they don't speak to me in the same way.  I would never expect that a blogger wouldn't change and grow and I support them in that. If we must part ways, so be it.

But it makes me saddest when they don't post. I wonder if they are okay and what is going on in their lives to keep them from here. If they choose to give up blogging, I get it. It is time consuming and not for everyone. 

Now, this is the part that kind of upsets me. They post mainly to instagram with all their new works in progress or fabrics they bought or anything quilty, but not to their blog. Then they return to their blog, eventually, say they are sorry, invite you to follow them on instagram. Unless they are doing a tutorial, or a blog hop for someone, or pushing their latest fabric line, pattern or book. Then they blog. That says to me, you are not worth my time unless you are going to buy something from me.  Before you take issue with that statement, I know they do not necessarily mean it that way, but think about it.  Can't be bothered to blog and share, but now that I have something to push, here I am.

I have cleaned out the blogs in my reader and in my bookmarks to eliminate these bloggers. My choice.  I continue on with so many others, over 100 blogs that I give my time, loyalty and comments to. If you are a blogger who instagrams, just think about this. Try not to leave your loyal blog readers in the dust for the newest social media things that come along. We will miss you if you do.