Finish It Up Friday

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Psalm 19:1

I've decided to join the "Finish It Up Friday!" group in the hopes that it will stir me on to finishing up more of my UFOs. This week was extremely unusual in that I actually finished 4 quilts. And yes, they are all small ones. But they're finished! Yeah! The first you've seen before:  "Boo" is 12 inches square. See yesterday's post to see how cute he looks on the fireplace mantel.

The quilt below is called "Glimmers" and is actually composed of little 9-patches. It's about 15 inches square.

The quilt above is has 4 Dear Jane blocks made with Thimblerries fabrics. It's about 14 inches square. The quilt below is Yankee Doodle, a Jo Morton pattern, finishes about 30 inches square.

Hopefully hurricane Sandy will wait until Monday so I can get some sewing in on Saturday and Sunday! Till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary

Fall Decorating

I had to start with this darling pumpkin photo, courtesy of bhg.com. Is this not the cutest pumpkin for someone who loves to sew? I'm on the hunt now for a bunch of black buttons. In the meantime, come see some of my fall decorating!

I love fall! And I love to get in the spirit of the season with a little fall decorating. My front door wreath (above) has a wooden leaf pick that gets swapped out in December for a folk art santa. I also add a few green picks with red berries, and my front door is covered for 2 seasons! The little welcome plaque (above) sports pumpkins in the fall, they'll also get a quick change-out in December.

I have a small island in the kitchen, and my Pat Sloan pumpkin runner sits on it. One of my newest quilts (below) is Glimmers, a Jo Morton pattern. Each little square finishes at .5 inches. The candle is called "sugar cookie", and is more yellow/gold than the photo shows. Don't you love the perky polka-dot bow!

Three shots of my fireplace. The photo above shows the top shelf with my patterned dishes and my 3 Jim Shore angels.

Here's "Boo" on the wire frame finally! I ran into A C Moore this morning and all the fall silk flowers were marked way down...I love that! So I decided to change out the summer spray in my blue crock and add the fall color. I need to find one more ear of Indian corn, though! The other quilt is from "Country Threads Goes to Charm School." Each block has 4 trees in it.

Okay, I'm off to my sewing room to finish up a few more small quilts.

Till next time, keep stitchin'!

Mary

Little Women

I thank my God every time I remember you. 
Philippians 1:3

 Here are a few more pictures of our Little Women group that met Oct. 13. The above photo is our group "Just Rosie" photo. Photo below is Pam's Just Rosie.

 Above, Celestia and her Just Rosie,
below is Fannie and her Just Rosie.

 Above, Mary's Just Rosie, and
below, our group Transferware photo

 Above, Pam's Transferware.
Below, Celestia's Transferware.

And above, my Transferware.

And to conclude this post, here is a fab picture of Charlott'es completed Eagle quilt:

I still have a few misc. quilt photos to post from our show and tell. Stay tuned for one more "Little Women" post.

Till next time, keep stitchin'!

Mary

Little Women

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of His glory."

Isaiah 6:3

Our Little Women group met Saturday, Oct. 13, and of course we had fun talking with friends and fondling fabric! Our assignment last month was to make the Pottery Shards quilt. We had 5 beautiful examples of this Jo Morton project. I just love how you can take the same pattern, give it to 5 different people, and come up with such individual looking projects.

Charlotte gets a huge "Atta-Girl!" award for her amazing Yankee Doodle quilt (above). There are a bazillion teeny tiny yoyos in the center. The medallion star is surrounded by hand appliqued stars and circles. Great job, Charlotte! Mine is as far as adding the final row of red/white triangles. When I get that done, I'll post a photo for you--just don't hold your breath ;-)

Pam led the project portion of the meeting, showing her completed Bacon and Eggs quilt, and walking us through the pattern. Thanks, Pam, for taking the lead on this one. I really like how yours turned out. The setting fabric is a red and white paisley from Jo Morton that almost reads pink. Good job, Pam! I must add I didn't really like this pattern until I realized you can make those yellow/white/black 9-patches from a Honey Bun roll. I had several and chose one called "Basket of Flowers" by Mary Engelbreit. That quilt is still a work in progress, will post as I make progress.

I have more photos of our meeting to post and will do that a little later. In the meantime, friends, keep stitchin'!
Mary

Thimbleberries Meeting

We had our October Thimbleberries meeting tonight--I wish I could freeze frame the glorious weather we've been having here in Virginia! And the trees are coloring up so nicely. I have two possible ways to get to my LQS from my house..a 15 minute drive that is a fast highway trip, or a 20 minute drive that is down a paved 2-lane road with beautiful trees, fields with dark black cattle and some beautiful brown horses. I took the picturesque route tonight! We're still a good week away from peak fall color here, but the scenery was gorgeous nontheless.

So without further ado, here are some shots from our Thimbleberries meeting. Some of us are still working on our fall quilt and some have started their winter one. Both are turning out very nice. And interestingly, it seems everyone had to put their own spin on the fall design. Almost no one made it according to the pattern!

This is my TWIN PEAKS quilt (above). I want it to be more square, and less long and rectangular. I still need to add the green border to it.

A TWIN PEAKS throw for the foot of the bed (above).

Christmas quilt:  My friend Pam does such nice work. She lightened up the background fabric and I had to take a closeup photo for you to see--it has white trees on a white background with little tiny red birds on it! Very cute and festive, and I like how the white brighted up the quilt. Several of us who haven't started our quilts might borrow Pam's idea and use a lighter background.



Most of us participated in the "Mystery Sew Along Project" in Thimbleberries this year, by making bunches of 3.5 x 6.5 inch flying geese. Ann actually sewed hers up as 4 baby quilts to donate to the hospital preemie unit.

I didn't take a picture of the pumpkin cake, but it was yummy!

'till next time, keep stitchin!
Mary

The Wayward Girls

Our Wayward Girls met Saturday and had a really productive day. Pam worked on several projects, including a red/pink/brown pattern called  "Magic Block". The pattern is by Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Then Pam worked on her adorable Halloween quilt, made with Deb Strain's Hall-o-ween charm pack and a few yards of black spidery background fabric. She finished the binding on this darling quilt called "Stack and Wack Turnover". Fabric by Moda. How cute is this!

These red/tan/brown blocks are from the book "Spotlight on Neutrals". The are basically 9-patches that are sewn together and then cut apart, turned, and resewn. The pattern is called "Summer Stitch-In".

Carol worked on making half square triangles and sewing them into Broken Dishes blocks. This will become the Jo Morton Little Women quilt "Pottery Shards".

 

And I am so excited to have prepped 2 quilts for my longarm quilter. The first one was my Mary Mayhem mystery quilt, a Christmas gift for my granddaughter Hadley. She loves pink, and has a pet Conyer Parrot named Kiwi. That's why the wild pink color, and the colorful birds on her quilt.

The second quilt I prepped for the longarm quilter is my summer Thimbleberries quilt called "Little Garden." IIt will look like this (above) when finished. My fall quilt just needs the final borders put on, and it can go to the quilter too!

A few more works in progress. Pam worked on her Pumpkin quilt and that's mine on the design wall with hers. The colorful quilt below it is "Bacon and Eggs" in progress for an upcoming Little Women meeting. Every now and then I like to do something totally out of the box! This quilt uses 1.5 inch squares to make the 9-patches, so I used a Honey Bun strip from Mary Engelbreit called "Basket of Flowers."

We also introduced Carol to Pandora Radio. Check it out if you haven't already! And another great day of sewing was had with the Wayward Girls!

Till next time, Keep Stitchin!
Mary