A Winner on Wednesday

Have you been waiting with bated breath? Gosh I hope not since if you had you'd probably be very blue or dead by now -- sorry! Anyway I had 22 entries in my giveaway for the 100 5" Christmas squares.

Drumroll please.... and the winner is Darlene of Quilting Daze! Give her a big round of applause!

Well I hope you week has been more productive than mine so far. I haven't even turned on my sewing machine but hopefully the weekend will have some quality time for sewing.

Happy stitching-

carol fun

Big Busy Stars on Design Wall Monday

Okay I was laying in bed Saturday morning doing some reading on my Kindle. I read the local paper and some blogs and then clicked on Pinterest and there it was.... this video from the Missouri Star Quilt shop.

Edited to add: You can click on the picture below and follow the link or click here to see the video.

Source: youtube.com via Carol on Pinterest

Oh wow! I love stars and I LOVE big stars even more. I was intrigued by the way she makes half-square triangles I've never done them this way. And before you know it I got my butt out of bed and was down in my sewing room cutting fabric. Here's what I got done....

I spent a ton of time trying to decide what fabrics to use. The video uses a layer cake and I have a bunch of layer cakes but none talked to me. However my Debbie Mumm fabrics were quite chatty and I grabbed some. I decided on a "theme" of using of my busy background fabrics since I have a bunch of these and they aren't always easy to work into other designs. Now these blocks are BIG BIG BIG.... they finish 24".

Can you see the 6" ruler on this block? and how it fills my cutting mat?

Here's another close-up of the fabrics - a busy background paired with other busy fabrics. Its going to be a busy quilt and you know I LOVE busy - LOL! I plan to sash the blocks with other busy backgrounds and use the snowball technique to create shoo-fly blocks in between the stars.

Now this method of making HST is pretty quick but I have a few thoughts on the construction. I am spray starching the squares before I sew and cut them. I used a scant 1/4" seam around the outside of the blocks so I could square them up with my Tucker Trimmer - I love that tool. When you make the HST this way you do have the bias on the outside edges of the units, so I think the starch helps stabilize the bias and you need to handle them gently. That said, it is nice for this old dog to learn new tricks.

I have all the fabrics cut for these blocks (those squares on the design wall are the other backgrounds I'm going to use). I'm hoping to get a little time here and there this week to sew up some more blocks. Hope there is some sewing time in your week!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow stitching on Sunday

I was so happy to pick up my Lizzie Kate Autumn Alphabet sampler from Joanns. Bev and Joyce did another great framing job on this one.

I've used this frame a couple of times before and I love the way it looks on all the samplers I've paired it with. Here are a couple of close up of the stitching - I really like these Fall colors.

Bev said she liked how the little squares on the frame echoed the squares of the sampler... I like it too! And I was able to get some quality stitching time in on my Quaker Diamonds sampler.

This one is fun to stitch because often you can follow the pattern without the graph since it has a repeat. And then you can switch to the parts like the letters and the fill in motifs that need a bit more attention. I'm liking taking a picture once a week because I can really see my progress and that it motivating.

And I stumbled upon this link The Needlework Show... click here. Then click on the General Viewing link and you can browse a ton of shops and the myriad of products they offer. I found several pieces I may have to add to my stash. I like how at the bottom of each screen there is a place to click to move onto the next shop - very efficient. I think this show is only online for a short time span so check it out....although I will say I spent a substantial amount of time here.. it was fun!

So as we all start another busy week I hope that life gives you time to stitch, sew, quilt, knit, and indulge in crafty activities...and may your loads of laundry be few!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Off and On the Needles

There was a bit of knitting in my week and I was able to finish the Lorna's Laces In the Wind sock I showed last Friday. Ta dah!

Now this yarn has serious problems in that I can tell now that the second sock is going to look very similar to the first one.... oh the thrill is gone - LOL! Anyway I'll get back to the mate for this one in a week or two or three or whenever.

So my needles were momentarily empty and I grabbed this ball of yarn.

This is another Opal Antonia Hand dyed and is colorway 3175. I purchased it from Simply Socks here. And I LOVE the way this is knitting up! First we have the right facing profile...

and the left facing profile...and yes I do see those stitches I messed up - must fix them!

This has a lovely orange sherbet swath along with three shades of purple. It is turning out more swirly stripe-y than pooling but I'm okay with that. The Antonia yarns are so interesting. I have no idea how this sock or its mate is going to knit up and that keeps my needles clicking row after row.

Well I'm hoping to have a cozy weekend at home knitting, stitching and sewing. Hope yours is cozy too!

carol fun

More Ho Ho Ho and a Giveaway

Boy the week is sure flying by quickly...I swear that yesterday was Monday, even though my phone said Wednesday~ and what has happened to my world ...my phone knows more about what day it is than I do! There was a time when I wore a pretty button bracelet watch every day...now I check my phone for the time. I'm not sure I like how this is going but it sure is going. Anyway where was I, oh yeah, distracted by something shiny.

Last night I was able to get the borders on my Carol's Christmas Cacophony -- oh I love alliteration!

I added a peppermint-y stripe inner border and used cornerstones so I wouldn't have to match anything.

I took this pictures outside and the color isn't quite right. The quilt is a lovely soft yellow interspersed with wild dollops of color - LOL! I'm going to use that peppermint-y stripe for the binding and in fact I already made it -- oh I am so proud of me - LOL!

And this is the fabric I found for the back -- OMG isn't it perfect? I found it at Joanns and it was 50% off and I know I haven't seen it there before yesterday. The clerk said they had gotten some new bolts in just before the sale and this had to one of them. I can't believe I would have passed this by if I had seen it before.

So where does that leave me? I have a lovely Christmas quilt top and I still have a bin of Christmas fabrics that is bursting at the seams. So I think that a giveaway is in order.

Here is a sampling of what I will send you .... 100 5" squares of Christmas-y winter-y fabrics.There will be duplicates but overall there will be about 40 different fabrics. No Big Dude is not included in the giveaway but you may need to know that there is a pet - a LARGE furry cat- that lives in my home and claims my cutting table as a perch most afternoons. In looking more closely at this picture I realize it could be one of those "where's Waldo?" puzzles.... do you see scissors, and a crab, and a train and a big mess? Oh you are observant.

Anyway here's the deal.. leave me a Christmas greeting on this post and I will send one lucky winner 100 5" squares. This giveaway will run from today till next Tuesday - October 23rd at midnight EST - then I'll pick a winner and announce it on Wednesday the 24 - sound good? I hope so!

Okay I'm off to get some dinner - happy stitching!

carol fun

Ho ho ho on Design Wall Monday

Did you know that there are only 71 more days till Christmas?? Neither did I till looked it up! I sew A LOT this weekend and I was determined to get this UFO from about 2 years ago together. One hundred and twenty one 5" squares of Christmasy goodness. I used about 40 different fabrics.






Some of my favorites are this vintage looking Santa who occupies the center square...

and here is another vintage looking print... such sweet little kids playing with a train...

and a kooky looking orange reindeer!

This one is a Nancy Wolff print I just recently found. As far as I can tell she isn't designing fabric anymore and that makes me sad. I love her unique quirky style.










Now I realize that putting sashing on these blocks did nothing to quiet them down, in fact I think it got even busier looking but I'm ok with that. Looking at all those different fabrics makes me smile! I'm planning on a wide border of that yellow sashing fabric and maybe an inside border too. I'll have to see what might work. And I am a bit surprised and pleased that somehow I managed to make yellow Christmas quilt. I LOVE IT!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow Stitching on Sunday

Well I have been so slowly stitching on this today that I actually feel asleep....twice. It isn't that it is boring to stitch I'm just tired and the naps were very nice.

This is my start on Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor. It is a beautiful design. This is the first time I've stitched with the Valdani threads but it won't be the last. They are very nice to work with.

I was able to finish my Autumn Alphabet by Lizzie*Kate this week and dropped it off at to Bev at Joanns to be framed. I'll show pictures when it returns.

I did get a lot of sewing done on a UFO quilt top this weekend and there was some fabric shopping too. I'll share that tomorrow, but now I'm sleepy and I'm off to bed.

Happy stitching-
carol fun