Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring 2015

Oh it is that time again... The Blogger's Quilt Festival...and there are so many wonderful quilts to see! Thank you to Amy for putting this all together and thank you to everyone who stops by here to see my quilt. This quilt is hot off the press... hot off the long arm machine (thank you Terry Finnerty of The Walking Needle)... and hot out of the dryer! All warm and crinkly and smelling like summer!

The pattern is Mahalo by Fig Tree Quilts which you can see here...and the fabric is from Abi's Hall collection On the Wing, which you can see here. I think it is a match made in heaven!

This quilt measures about 85" square so I'm entering it in the Large quilt category which you can view here. I love all the different prints  and it has all my favorite colors... yellow, blue, gold and orange! Such happy happy colors!

These blue bird prints make me smile from ear to ear... I have a special place in my heart for all types of fowl (chickens are my favorites as you can tell from my blog header - LOL!)

And if you look closely or make the pictures bigger you can see it was quilted with a bird panto in a variegated yellow/orange thread...birds birds and more birds...love it!

This quilt is a match made in heaven for my bedroom...the walls are blue and the drapes are a golden yellow buffalo check... see?

I even made pillowcases to coordinate with the quilt for a complete ensemble...oh I am getting fancy schmancy here...LOL!

Hope you have enjoyed looking at this quilt... there are so many lovely ones to see... I'll be glued to my laptop for quite a while checking out quilts and new blogs. I love how seeing a quilt opens up a new world of blogs to investigate. And if you have some time please poke around my blog too... I have lots of crafty interests and ways I avoid cooking and cleaning...LOL! No one on their death bed said "I wish I had spent more time at the office" or "I wish I had cleaned more toilets".

happy stitching-
carol fun

I think 3rd time is the charm...

This is the 3rd arrangement of these Stack N Whack hexagons I've played with, and I think this is the one!

I wanted something different from my standard layout of these blocks. I like how you get rings of hexagons and one blends into another.

I think it will show off the individual blocks nicely. This is by no means the final placement of the hexagons, as I will want to distribute the colors across the top.

I've got a ton of things I want to play with this week, including this quilt top and the modern TV Dinner one I had on the wall last week. There is that cross stitch sampler I started yesterday...I have 3 letters stitched...woo-hoo! And I have a bunch of flowers I want to pot up... petunias, and geraniums, and plants I don't know the name of, but they were pretty!

However, I should get to this pile of quilts too...

I got three quilts back from Terry Finnerty of The Walking Needle and they all look great. Need to get the bindings on and pop them into the washer and dryer.

So many things to do... so little time! I think I'll forgo cooking and cleaning and laundry and just do the fun stuff!

happy stitching-
carol fun

M is for....

Mother!  Happy Mother's Day to one and all! I hope that your day is spent with your loved ones...that's what is on my agenda... along with my own Mother's Day tradition of a guilt-free start on a new cross stitch project.

I started this tradition for myself years ago when I received the chart and fabric and floss for this piece from my boys as a Mother's Day gift.

I have forgotten the title of this piece but it is my Ewe and Eye and Friends. Love the colors and that the big alphabet is done in large Smyrna crosses...they give the sampler so much texture. I think you can see it if you click on the picture.

Last night as I was laying in bed I thought about what I would want to start today. I purposely blocked out all visions of the many many WIP I already have. Mother's Day is not a day for guilt, it is a day for joy!  I remembered a couple of Quaker pieces I've tucked away but somehow they just didn't talk to me. Soooooo... this morning I started to go through my stash and this popped up. I had totally forgotten about this one, but it was kitted up and ready to go.

The sampler is by Blackbird Designs and is titled Early Morning Read. I love the flower border and the colors, shades of red and rose and even a hint of peach. Those two birds in the lower right melt my heart and then there is a heart right next to them! LOVE it!

This sampler is in this book by Blackbird Designs...

It was published in 2011 and it includes lots of different projects from quilts to cross stitch to a hooked rug to making candles in a tea cup...thoroughly enjoyable.

I am comfortably seated in my stitching chair with my new sampler, watching my beloved Cincinnati Reds play the Chicago White Sox, and listening to  the play by play from my favorite sports broadcaster, George Grande. I'm going to dinner at the newlyweds home to celebrate the day. They've invited her mom, dad and grandmother along with me and my younger son for a steak dinner and cupcakes... what a lovely day it is!

Happy Mother's Day and happy stitching!

carol fun

Minor changes...

I'm a little late for WIP Wednesday but here it is anyway. I made some minor changes in the rectangular blocks for my TV Dinner quilt.  You can see the pattern  by Modern Quilt Relish here.
The fabric is from Carrie Bloomston's Paint collection which you can see here.

If you make the picture bigger you can see where I inserted bits of text and fabric into the blocks that were solid colors. To my eye those blocks of solid color were flat...and kinda quiet... and I wanted them to be, well... louder and.busier! I like busy! Busy busy busy!

In some blocks I just inserted a little strip of another one of the solids...

But with several of the other blocks I was able to wedge in a bit of text fabric...

with little messages...

Now I have to assemble the center. Since I'm making this a bit shorter than the pattern calls for I'll be making adjustments in the spacer blocks. I'm thinking I may cut them random lengths and make the center less regular...we'll see.

Okay, off to get stuff ready for a garage sale tomorrow. I'm thinking this is the last garage sale I will ever do.  I've priced stuff cheap cheap cheap but it takes A LOT of time to get things ready. Ninety nine percent of what I pawed through I forgot I had... and until I knew I had it, I didn't miss it. I just ended up feeling guilty about stuff that was already bought and paid for and forgotten. It would have been easier to have NOT opened the boxes and taken them to Goodwill... which is where anything that doesn't sell will be tomorrow night.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Gardening and thank yous...

First off I want to thank Marsha & Judy for giving me ideas of where to find those yellow stripe petunias! I had success finding them at a new to me local nursery, Bloom and Berries in Loveland Ohio...here is a link to their web page.

I snapped up 10 plants and I will say they looked a bit nicer when I bought them yesterday, than when I took this picture today.

I gave them some water right before I took this picture as they are at bit bedraggled. I know I talk complain a lot about the weather but really...last week we had night time temps near freezing and today is it 80! Tomorrow is suppose to be even hotter... and this is only the beginning of May. Not our normal weather.

I also got these plants to mix in with the petunias...

the purple ones are Angelonia in Angelface Blue, the orange ones are Diascia in Flirtation Orange. I hadn't seen either of these before in these colors. They are also Proven Winners. Blooms and Berries is Proven Winner nursery and had lots of plants I hadn't seen before. I think I need to visit them again...soon.  Tomorrow I'm going to get some potting soil and plant them in the new pots I have in the garage. I'm going to put them on my front porch railing.

I will say the warm hot weather has made me raring to go with planting. I'm going to do lots of pots and I want to edge my beds with marigolds and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new 6 foot long PVC window box. The one I have now is wood and it is split and cracked...it won't make it through the summer. I will have to paint the new one when it arrives but it is suppose to last forever...or at least for my forever...LOL!

Also I want to thank Carol who identified my text fabric and sent me a link where to find it. You gals are all great... my own personal shoppers!

Well the neighborhood is abuzz with lawnmowers and edge trimmers...you'd think it was summer! I refuse to turn on the AC this early in the season so I have all the windows open a fan going. Poor Big Dude...

I'm wearing capris but he has to wear a fur coat. He's catching the breeze through the screen door and a few zzzzzzz's.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Totally random thoughts that run, run run...

Somehow I had convinced myself that this past weekend would be an easy, relaxing one... and boy was I wrong!  I finally dragged myself out to the garage on Saturday where I spent over 6 hours going through boxes and boxes and boxes, which were cousins of Pandora's box. Each one contained a myriad of items that I wish I had never seen. I have no recollection of when I purchased these items, nor do I want to do anything with them. My first instinct to get them out of the garage without opening them should have been followed. I've got a handful of items to go to the garage sale on Friday, the rest of this stuff with be donated -- gone gone gone!

On the up side... my garage has never looked better!

To reward myself for all my hard work on Saturday (and I'm all about the reward) I planned to spend a leisurely afternoon going to greenhouses in search of some David Austin rose bushes (I want 3)...I ended up with one and I think it may be the last David Austin rose bush for sale in Cincinnati.

And I want,  need,  MUST HAVE these petunias...

These are a Proven Winner called Lemon Slice Million Bells. I first saw them on someone else's blog... who lives in Oklahoma...no where near Ohio. I did find where I can order them online for home delivery but I really want to get them locally. More searching today.

While I did get to 2 greenhouses, I really wanted to visit more, but ended up run run running my younger son here and there and everywhere. Plans for a friend's birthday celebration were discombobulated which had me driving, driving, driving...but in the end all the birthday participants were happy and that is what matters.

So are you still with me... I actually have something quilty to show too!

I started this sometime last week...I have no idea when... but I'm liking it a lot! The pattern is TV Dinners by Modern Quilt Relish and you can see it here. You have to scroll down to see it and they have lots of interesting patterns. This pattern uses charm squares and really showcases a big scale print for the borders. You can see some other examples here.

The fabric line is Paint by Carrie Bloomston for Windham Fabrics which you can see here on Fabric Shack's site. I chose this fabric because the designers had done a version using this line, and right now I'm really into adding more turquoise into my living room decor. I think my DIL is rubbing off on me as it is one of her favorite colors. Turquoise is a nice addition to the taupe and yellow I already have. I envision this quilt gracing the wall of my living room and when I get it done I'll show my new decorating updates...hint...I got a new rug!

Oh back to the quilt, I LOVE the typography in many of these prints...

Now I could leave well enough alone... and should leave well enough alone... but I can't!   I'm going to do some improv piecing on those rectangular blocks. I want to insert more text and I think this fabric will work nicely.

I only have a third of a yard of this and I've got nothing on the selvedge to tell me who's fabric it is...hmmm... I see more running around to track this down.

Sooooo with all the running around I did this weekend and the running I have planned this week I should probably drop about 10 pounds...OMG... I am truly delusional! LOL

Anyway off to check out another greenhouse or two and later today pick up the newlyweds from the airport...their week is sunny Spain is over...so sad...but I know they made great memories.

happy stitching-
carol fun

The fiber in my diet...

sooooo... since the wedding is behind me I've been contemplating the other projects I want to tackle this summer. Some are things that I won't actually get my hands dirty over like the plumbing issue and the new carpet, but others do involve a more personal commitment. I want to get back to walking more and I'd like to add more fiber to my diet... the woolly kind...  which would produce results like this....

the yarn is Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight and the colorway is Chickabiddy. You can check out their yarn here but I don't see this colorway listed at the moment. They dye lots of different batches so colors come and colors go, which is why when you see it you have to snag it!


And there was this fiber in my diet too...

this yarn is a Paton Kroy I picked up at Joann's or Michaels... I forget which. Love the different width stripes. I did the heels and the toes in a gray yarn from my stash as I didn't want to mess up those lovely stripes.

And I wanted you too see the scarf/shawl I wore to my son's wedding. The pattern is Reverse Psychology and you can see the pattern here on Ravelry...

and the yarn is Kimber's Fiber Optic Paintbox Gradient which you can see here. Now the website says she's sold out but if you contact her I'm pretty sure she has the inventory in her shop. I used the Neon colorway for this. My friend Cathy blocked this for me and it is about 6 feet long...perfect to wrap around your shoulders, all drapey and swoopy! Thanks Cathy, you did a fabulous job on this! I will definitely be knitting this again. I used a ton of beads on this one and I will probably use less the next time around but it will still be a wonderful scarf.

I made the first step toward my commitment of walking more by sauntering the two blocks over to my son's house to feed his cat, and I ordered 2 more skeins of the Blue Moon yarn - A room without a roof and Pitterpat to add more fiber to my diet.

I also planned to work on cleaning out the garage today so I could gather some stuff for a garage sale next Friday, but that wasn't quite as successful as I would have liked. My day got off to a slow start, and then I ended up bringing my younger son's friend over so they could hang out, and I piddled and putzed and shuffled stuff around and generally bemoaned the fact that I really am not into garage sales. It is a lot of work and I never make that much. Several times today I changed my mind as to if I want to go through with this chore. I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow but I was this close to picking up the phone and calling 1-800-GOTJUNK and having them come and empty out the garage.

The weather this weekend and for the upcoming week looks wonderful - temps in the 70's and 80's. Makes me want to go buy flowers, which would be waaaay more fun than cleaning out the garage. I know I shouldn't put anything in the ground until Mother's Day but I did buy a bunch of pots that I could plant up and if the weather gets too cold I could drag them into the garage... oh that garage!

have a great weekend!

carol fun