flying geese circle block

In May, I used the method I call hack and whack and made this quilt.



Front: Back:

Today I used the scraps to make a flying geese circle block. I found the tutorial online, and tried my hand at paper piecing.

While this little block turned out just as darling as I had hoped, I must admit that I prefer the hack and whack method. Love the paper pieced look, but also love the free look of more modern quilting. Still - can you just imagine a darling nine patch quilt made into a baby blanket - flying geese circle block for five of the nine squares? Sounds cute to me! Now I just need someone to give it to to inspire me to complete it.

book giveaway

Yes, I know this is, in general, a quilting blog. But - what do you do with quilts? - Snuggle up in them. - And what's one of the best things to do when you're snuggled up in a quilt? Right - read a book!

I just read this true story about a family of women who have so much cancer in their family, genetically speaking, that it broke my heart. That being said - I loved the book, and couldn't put it down. Dealing with my own family members working through breast cancer treatments, on both sides of our family, this book was such a tender glimpse of how another family survived, and lived well throughout their challenges. I think you all should pick up a copy and read it for yourselves. Whether or not your family has been touched by cancer, we all know friends and neighbors who have. This book deserves a place on your bookshelf, and will keep you thinking for long after you put it down.



Penguin Books has generously offered to host my first giveaway! Two lucky people will get a copy of What We Have by Amy Boesky (of course while snuggled under a lovely quilt, and hopefully with a cup of hot chocolate as well).

And you get several chances to win (enter a separate comment for each one you do):

* Just leave a nice little comment on this post

* Follow my new blog (let me know that you did)

* Blog about this giveaway (send me a link)

* Post a Facebook entry about this giveaway

* Tweet too

Best of luck to you - Giveaway ends . . . Oh, let's go for September 7th so we have through Labor Day. Sorry, no international entries this time.

Thank you Penguin Books!

giveaway coming soon . . .

I just read a fabulous book - you know the kind - one of the ones where you kind of snuggle up a little deeper under your quilt, duck your head, and hope no one sees the tears in your eyes. Then those eyes betray you and start to leak. Soon you have to get up for a Kleenex, but run right back to your quilt spot and grab your book to read some more.

Yes, you too need to read this book.

. . . Giveaway coming soon . . .

. . . be sure to start following now so you don't miss out . . .

denyse schmidt single girl queen sized - check!

. . . And here it is, in all it's glory - Our completed quilt! Okay - the hexies on the pillows are just laying there - it didn't look quite right without some of the color and shape that will eventually be on the shams - but the quilt is done! Most of the fabric is from the Hope Valley line, but there are some omissions from that line, substituted with other fabrics. Since it is on our happily married bed, we choose to call it 'Family Circles' instead of 'Single Girl' - the original title just didn't seem to fit for us.

And of course, I always love the tags on quilts. There's a secret love note hidden on the back, which I didn't photograph because it's secret - but it was done in the same embroidery as the letters on this tag, which I stitched right into the binding.

The back is actually really fun too, but since I just now realized that I forgot to take a picture - I'll have to try and remember to do that later.

Anyway - it's done!!! That was a lot of work, and sure is nice to snuggle up with at night - all the stippling just makes it drape so nicely. Well done, me!

whew!

I know - it's been a long time since I last posted - but, did you see the previous post as to what I've been working on?! That's one big quilt!

I actually finished the quilting of it today, but no sneak peeks yet. I've got to put the binding on before I post end result photos. For now, a few details . . .

This is the bowl of basting pins I used for this quilt. It's a queen sized quilt, the largest I've made, and I had to go out and buy additional safety pins 3 times in order to have enough to finish basting it properly. That's after moving the furniture in our living room to even accommodate the stretching of it. Today, after three 547 yd. thread spools and 17 bobbins (yes, seventeen, that's not a typo), I finished quilting the new quilt for our bed. I would have liked to do some echo quilting on it, but had no idea if I could even reach the middle without puckering everything to pieces, so I went with a much more forgiving stipple, and have ended up loving the crinkly look it made.

My machine: a Viking Sapphire and a Fab-U-Motion attachment, and I love it! What a great invention for those of us without the room or the finances for a long arm. I can still dream of one, but in the meantime - keep posted - I'll get that binding on soon enough, and have a tricky way I want to try out for putting the tag on this time.

distracted projects

I did it! I finished my queen sized quilt top. Must admit, I was inspired to finish due to Amy's challenge, and then wasn't linked up properly to receive feed from her new web page and couldn't enter the lovely giveaway - but I am still so happy to have been inspired to finally finish this top. My husband told me it looks pretty easy, but I have informed him that sometimes quilts that look simple are the hardest to make. Curved little scraps sewn together is not a simple quilt. He is duly impressed now. And then that wonderful husband and I went out this weekend and bought new bikes. I'm so excited to ride with the kids! So of course, I had to make new little bike buckets for them (which wouldn't have taken quite so long to make if I would have appliqued the first alligator to the front of the bucket instead of the back - then had to go and put another one on the front - a very decorated little thing and lots of applique practice for me). I'm thinking that maybe if they carry around snacks and a drink in a cute little fabric basket, they won't notice that I'm keeping them out riding so long.

And the kids are completely caught up on their quilt blocks.

And due to my stray sewing this week . . . if you want to see my progress in my personal QAL, you will just have to scroll down to a previous post. I'm hoping to catch up soon, but there's just all these distractions - so many things to sew - so little time!

my day is officially made!

I am a giveaway winner, and am so excited! I signed up for a (darling) pattern giveaway on the Quilt Story blog, and this morning, when I was scrolling through all of my favorite quilt blogs - I saw my name listed there as a winner - yippee! I never win giveaway's, and that just made my day - thank you Quilt Story! (And for those of you who haven't checked out that blog yet - you should go look at it. I love how the real stories of quilts are shared - the challenges and love behind the scenes.)

And, for those of you wondering how all of the other projects are going, hopefully I will have a photo soon to explain what I've been working on that is putting me behind in my quilt-a-long. I will catch up soon though!

Yippee for today!