Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2017! Can you believe it's almost 2017??? This has been such a weird year. I'm hoping 2017 is a better year for everyone!

Raise your glasses and welcome the new year! I feel a new year holds so much promise and hope. Wishing all your dreams come true! (For me too!!)

Juniper Shawl

I finished this shawl right before Christmas. I actually wore it Christmas Eve! Juniper Shawl was designed bye Jen Lucas. She's written a few books using sock yarn to make shawls. I really love her patterns. 

I made this shawl with the hope of gifting it to someone for Christmas. I liked it so much that I kept it for myself! I bought this yarn at a quilt show. It's hand dyed. The color is Jewel Box. I would love to buy more of this colorway but can't seem to find it. It's just so pretty. This picture doesn't show how rich the color really is. 

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post before the madness begins! We've had our Christmas Eve dinner at my parent's house. Since my family is from Italy, we followed tradition and had fish for dinner. My mom also made a spinach pie and we also brought a pizza! 

We were planning to visit a friend of mine but the roads were terrible. It had rained earlier in the day and it all froze tonight. We decided to just come home instead. 

I made cookies and pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner tomorrow. I'll have lots of cooking to do in the morning. We'll be having turkey breast and a beef roast. 

Enjoy the holiday! Merry Christmas! Enjoy your families and friends!

Baby Quilt

I finished this quilt top today. I should be wrapping gifts but decided to get this done instead. I have to work the next 3 days and then it will be Christmas weekend. I just wanted to finish this and know it was done!

This quilt only needed 12 blocks and some narrow sashing. Nice and quick! I just tried to distribute the darker colors throughout the quilt. I think the colors are spread out nicely.

I don't usually shop at Joann's but I love using Hello Kitty fabric for the backing. I think it will be a nice addition to the fabrics from the quilt top.

Time to go back to getting ready for Christmas! Hope to start quilting this one soon!

Scrappy Quilt Top Finished!

My Scrappy Quilt top is all done! The border tripped me up for a little while. I just wasn't sure what to do. I had originally planned to put a black strip around the whole quilt and then some striped fabric for a wider border. I just didn't like that idea once I had the quilt top done. 

I didn't use black in the border at all. As you can see in this close up, I used a dark grey. I kept this one strip on for about a week. I just wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this. 

I felt the dark color was too dull of an ending for this quilt. That's what made me decide to add the pink. I thought a thin strip would add some color and really frame this quilt very nicely. I'm glad I took my time with this border. It looks so much better with that shot of color in the border.

Arcadia Avenue Quilted Diamonds

I finally decided how to quilt those big diamonds in Arcadia Avenue. They're fairly large. Each side measures 10 inches. I subdivided them into 4 diamonds where each side measures 5 inches.

I marked 4 one inch increments in the middle of each new diamond. I made a line that went from the top of the diamond, through the 1 inch mark, and then down to the very bottom of the diamond. That creates 5 areas to be quilted.

I quilted loops going back and forth in some of those areas. I quilted in 3 areas for 2 of the diamonds and 2 areas in the other 2 diamonds. I got the idea from Angela Walters book, Shape by Shape, Collection 2. She has the best designs. There are so many and it's very easy to mix and match them. 

I hope you can see my quilting in these pictures. It gets dark so early! I keep running out of daylight! You can open the images in a new tab and the detail is much better.

Baby Quilt

Aren't these the sweetest fabrics?? The fabric line is Old New 30's Origami Squares by Lecien Fabrics. I'm making a baby quilt and I thought these fabrics would just be perfect. I bought a layer cake and made 9 patches. I found the middle of my 9-patch in both directions and cut away! I'm using a pattern from Quilt in A Day called Piece of Cake.

This is the pattern I'm using. I made 12 blocks for the youth sized quilt. It will actually be large for a baby quilt but hopefully it will be used as the baby gets older.

I bought a solid baby pink for the sashing. I forgot how fun it is to make a baby quilt. It's so nice to be working on an easy project for a change.

Christmas Fun

I should be Christmas shopping or decorating the house but I'm working on this panel instead! I free motion quilted it on my new machine. I want to sew down the binding quickly so I can actually use it soon! It will be a nice addition to my family room. I suppose you can say I'm working on my Christmas decorations! (Sort of!!)

My husband and I went out to eat last night. I got the Christmas Cookie Martini! It was delicious. I had my usual limit of one drink. That's all I can handle. This tasted so good that I would have loved to have another. It tasted like dessert!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Arcadia Avenue Update

I 

I have completed quilting 4 blocks of the Arcadia Avenue quilt. Some of them have been easy to quilt but some are taking longer than expected. Most of this block was just stitched in the ditch. I stitched a few diamonds in the very center. 

Here's a closeup of the black diamonds in the same block.

I finally finished this block when I changed my thread to black. Here's a close up!

Even though the thread is black, it looks almost gray on this fabric. There are so many blacks that it's difficult to match them up perfectly.

I think I've posted this one before. I stitched around the entire block which really makes a difference! It lays so much flatter!

I tried to stitch a spiral in the middle of this block. There is so much bulk there that I just couldn't control my machine. I decided to just make a small spiral flower. Twelve fabrics meeting in the middle makes for a tough area to quilt!

That's it so far. I still have to decide how to quilt the large black diamonds on either side of these blocks. I'm down to 3 possible designs. Decisions, decisions!!

Scrappy Project Almost Done!

I'm done making all the blocks and have started to sew them together. I'm hoping to have this quilt top finished very soon! Not sure about the borders yet. I was going to add 2 borders but not sure anymore. I think I'll be sewing on one border. I feel the quilt is busy enough. I think a nice calming border would be best. I'll be auditioning a few fabrics to see what works best. 

I don't know about you but I don't want to see turkey again until next year. That's all I've been eating since Thursday. Already sick of it!! I don't mind the pumpkin pie though!! Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving! I baked my pie and cake last night. Enjoying a nice quiet morning before we all overeat!

Enjoy your dinner and count your blessings! We all have much to be thankful for!

A Quiet Sunday Afternoon

It seems the winter weather has finally found us. I stayed in today and worked on a few projects while sitting on the couch. Due to the cold temperatures moving in, I started a knitting project. I couldn't resist this yarn. I bought it the Mancuso Quilt show this past summer. It's a fingering weight yarn whose color is jewel box. Isn't is so pretty?? I'm going to make a shawl. I could have made socks but I want this gorgeous yarn to be seen!

I'm also doing a little applique for Green Tea and Sweet Beans. I have all my stems ready. I use freezer paper to prepare my applique pieces. The leaves are all ready also but I have yet to choose the flower fabrics. I'll work on the greens first. 

I also worked on a little free motion quilting but didn't get very far. I think I really just wanted to sit on the couch and rest. My husband has a cold so we're sitting here enjoying our afternoon. 

Hope you had a nice weekend! Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! Time is flying!

Igloo and Connections

This is the second Igloo block I made for Jen Kingwell's Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt. I should have made this block along with the other Igloo block needed for the quilt. However, I never even noticed that 2 blocks were needed! I guess I didn't pay attention! It was easy to catch up. Just had to make another block!

Here's my Tone It Down quilt hanging at the Connections Quilt Festival. I really enjoyed attending this show. There were 200 quilts to see and many vendors to keep us busy.

Farmgirl Vintage was also at the show. It was a great show and it was only the first year. My husband came with me on Saturday to pick up my quilts. He had never been to a quilt show. He walked around as they were taking down the quilts. Maybe I'll get him to go to more shows!! We did see someone's husband sleeping on one of the couches. We both had a good laugh when we saw him!

Connections Quilt Festival

Connections Quilt Festival began today and will continue for the next 2 days. As you can see, it takes place in Nashua, New Hampshire at the Holiday Inn. You can find their website here.

I plan on being there the next 2 days. I have 2 quilts in the show and can't wait to see them hanging! It should be a nice event. It looks like there are plenty of vendors as well as about 200 quilts to see. 

Hope some of you in the area will be able to attend! Maybe I'll see you there!!

Mystery Ride

Our guild sponsors a mystery ride twice a year. This past Saturday, we piled into the bus looking forward to a fun day of shopping!

Our first stop was The Victorian Cupboard and Sewing Studio in Methuen, Massachusetts.

This was such a cute shop! It wasn't a large shop but it had the nicest fabrics and accessories. I plan on visiting this shop again. 

We were greeted with coffee and pastries. I think everyone enjoyed our first stop.

Our second stop was the Hampstead Middle School in Hampstead, New Hampshire. They have an annual craft fair that has a huge following.

There were many different crafts represented at the fair. I'm always amazed at the ideas people come up with. Why don't I think of these things?! Lots of fun items!

We had a great lunch at the Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson, NH. Donald Trump made an appearance here the day before our mystery ride. 

Our last stop was Stitched in Stone in Kingston, NH. I was excited to see a store with yarn as well as fabric. 

This shop was loaded with fabric and patterns. There was quite a line at the cutting table. A lot of us bought fabric since we enjoyed a 10% discount.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted! I bought a few things and had fun hanging out with friends. These trips are always a fun time and this one was no exception.

My Scrappy Quilt

Here's my scrappy quilt so far! I had an idea for the middle diagonal but I'm not going to use it. Back to the drawing board for me! I like it so far. Just hope I can come up with a middle row that will complement the rest of the quilt.

Just another view of the blocks. I won't be able to work on this until next week sometime. So busy lately! I'll be going on the guild's mystery quilt ride tomorrow. These outings are such fun.  We all pile into a bus and have no idea where we're going! It's usually a few quilt shops and a nice lunch. I'll blog about it in a few days. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I bought this panel at the beginning of the month. I just quilted a large meander on it. Nice and quick so I could hang it up for the holiday. We're expecting trick or treaters here for 5-7pm. Having dinner early and getting the candy ready!

Happy Halloween!!!

More FMQ Arcadia Avenue

I worked on the center of this block for 1 hour. It seemed like a long time for such a small area. There's a lot of fabric in that center so I had to quilt very slowly. All of the grey areas have been quilted in the ditch on both top and bottom seams.

The white diamond and black diamond were both quilted in the ditch. You can see my free motion loops in the white diamond. I'm going to quilt in the black diamond but I have to change my thread to black. I can't believe it, but this block is almost done! I'm going to finish 4 blocks and then tackle some of the black set in triangles. It's slow and steady but I'm getting there!!

More Green Tea and Sweet Beans

Here's my Igloo block that I made for Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt by Jen Kingwell. I love to applique. It's very relaxing for me. I use the freezer paper method. There are many methods out there but this one works for me. I should have read the directions better.  I have to make 2 of these blocks but I only made one! That's okay, I'm starting the second block already!

Here are my blocks so far. I'm getting there! I have 5 more types of blocks left. I have to make more than one for most of those remaining blocks. However, once the blocks are done, I'll be starting the border. The border consists of a vine with appliqued flowers all the way around! Yup, nowhere being done with this one!