A design wall from a scatterbrained quilter

Well I found my camera. And where was it you ask? Hmmmm.. ok, when I ask my oldest son where something might be, he sarcastically answers "have you looked up my butt?" (I'm ok with this because sarcastic doesn't fall far from the sarcastic tree and I've been know to have similar answers.) However in this case his answer was very very close to the truth. I was literally sitting on my camera. It has fallen down in the crack of my recliner by the arm and somehow maneuvered itself in between the back cushions. But hey, I found it!

And that leads me to this pictures of my design wall that I have to show today. I know this looks nothing like my design wall last week and no I haven't finished that quilt. These blocks got unearthed (it is like an archeology dig in my sewing room) when I was trying to straighten up (with very limited success). These are 16 patch blocks I started back in the summer when I saw Crazy Mom Quilts 36 patch QAL. However, true to my scatterbrained tendency I didn't keep up with the QAL but I do have these to show for my abbreviated commitment.



Every blocks is a tone on tone yellow paired with a floral. Some are BIG scale....



others are smaller scale....



and ALL of this fabric is coming out of my stash so this is essentially a FREE quilt - LOL! (We do not need to discuss the fallacy of this line of reasoning.) Anyhow, now that I've put them up on my design wall on point I really really like this layout. And the 12 inch block now turns into a 17 inch block -- bigger is better, right?? Ok, not always but it works here. So I want to make this a BIG quilt - no surprise there - and it will get big quicker this way. I haven't decided yet if I will fill in the outside triangle spaces with more tone on tone yellows or just make more blocks and whack them off. Need to ponder that. At the moment I'm thinking the tone on tone yellows are the way to go since it seems to vibrate when you look at it (Stephie look away- I don't want to aggravate your vertigo).

Happy Halloween everyone- I'm off to answer the doorbell!

carol fun

Sampler Sunday - an encore edition

Doesn't "encore edition" sound better than "repeat"? Yes, I thought so too. Anyway I can't seem to find my camera. I know it is in the house but I haven't located it so I thought I show a sampler that I have shown before. Now this sampler has a lovely Fall-ish feel and I originally showed it back in May of 2010, so a lot of you may not have seen it before. If you have, well, I think it deserves more than one look.

This is We Gather Together Together from With Humble Heart by Jan Stephens Rogers.



This is one of my largest samplers. It measures almost 24 inches square and there is a lot going on in this one. I loved the border with the grape clusters. A good border really sells me on a sampler. The center features this large blue house and an even larger woman. Does anyone know why so many samplers have people that dwarf their houses? Oh well, I do like the effect.



And there are lots of pumpkins and squirrels in this piece along with a solitary chicken, I stitched this back in 2000 which is my pre-polka dot chicken era so it is just a chicken.



I hope you enjoy seeing this sampler. I realized the other day that I have been showing a sampler on Sunday for about 18 months. I still have some that I haven't shown but eventually I will have to have more "encore" appearances if I'm going to continue this feature. I hope you are will be okay with that, since I do enjoy samplers. I did get another one off to the framers last week and the coupon at Joann's this week is the perfect one (50% off plus $20 off) for a small piece. Last time I used that kind of coupon the whole piece only cost me $7 to frame. Can't wait to see if I can get off that cheap again - LOL!

Well, I have plans to finish up knitting some socks this evening and resting up for the week. Hope you have a great week -

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Fall 2011 Blogger's Festival Quilt

I LOVE looking at all the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I hope that you will enjoy my offering. This is my Swooning Over Halloween quilt. It is a based on the uber-popular Swoon quilt by Camille of Thimble Blossoms.



I knew that I wanted this quilt to fit on the wall next to the fireplace so that limited the size. I scaled down the blocks and then went to town with my Halloween fabrics.

These are my favorite blocks.... each one features a Halloween creature that I fussy cut from a Nancy Wolff fabric I've been hoarding for quite a while.

Oh no... a ghost!



A smiling skeleton...


A devious devil...


A grinning black cat..


My long arm quilting gal, Cass, did a great job on this quilt. I wish it showed up better but hopefully you can see how she stitched a ton of different Halloween motifs into this quilt - pumpkins, a spider web, a spider, a devil, a skull, a pitchfork - just to name a few.



This quilt will be the centerpiece of my Halloween decorating for years to come.

Thanks Amy for hosting this event-- you do a fantastic job and it brings so much enjoyment to so many!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A Fall-ish Finish

Well yesterday while the sun was still shining (as opposed to today when it is grey, cold and rainy), I dragged this quilt outside to snap some pictures. This is a Jaybird quilt pattern called Unwind.



It takes a jelly roll (it is the Oh My! line by Sanae) and some background fabric and uses the Lazy Angle ruler by Creative Grids. This is a quick quilt to stitch up and I like how it shows off the fabrics. My long arm gal, Cass, did a great job with the quilting. It is wonderfully crinkly since it has been washed.



I can't believe it is already Thursday. I swear someone steals days from my week. It has been one of those weeks where I've started lots of little projects but somehow was lacking some part to finish them. And of course this has contributed to the ever growing mess. Maybe I'll get something finished this weekend. The thoughts of Christmas gifts are bouncing around in my head but I haven't latched on to any as the "perfect" one yet. But with Halloween upon us I know I need to get moving ..... ackkk!!! My sainted grandmother told me that time flies the older you get, and the way my time is speeding past I think I must be ancient!

Looking forward to the weekend-
Happy stitching!
carol fun

A design wall from a messy stitcher

Well back on Thursday I said I was going to finish putting the borders on my Charming Stars quilt and that I wanted to start the cover quilt from Quilt magazine. Only half of that statement occurred - ahem.... here is the start of a new quilt called Dazzling Scraps (their title not mine - LOL!)



I may call it Dazzling Debbie! This is my second quilt this year with my cherished Debbie Mumm scraps. I stumbled upon a site- Mummquilters.com - that was new to me that carries lots of new DM and I was able to score more background fabrics cause you can never have too many different background fabrics - IMHO! This place has fantastic service. I ordered on Saturday and had my fabric on Monday- I don't know how she did it.

I love going through my stash and cutting squares out of fabrics that make me smile. Like this fat turkey...



or this cat who reminds me of my Big Dude... if he was skinny Big Dude...



However I project like this means I will make a humongous mess of which this is only a small corner...



Perhaps I should hide my face in shame like Big Dude -- LOL -- or just go sew a few more blocks together! Yeah -- that's a plan!




Happy stitching-
carol fun

A sampler for a cloudy Sunday

Well yesterday was certainly sunnier than today, but at least it isn't rainy and cold. I took pictures of this Sunday's sampler out on my screen porch. I'm pretty sure it is a Chessie & Me but I don't have a clue what the title is. I searched a lot of sites and all I found were more charts I'd like to have.



This is one sampler that feeds my log cabin home fantasy. I'd love to have a little cabin somewhere in the woods - at least until I need to run to the fabric shop or got out to dinner - LOL!



I love how the satin stitches make it look like logs and that half square triangle row looks like a border from a quilt. I'm not sure about the sentiment " in virtues ways I spend my days" - ummm... does virtue include shopping? I've been doing a lot of that lately - LOL!

Have a great week!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

The sun came out....

... and I took some pictures of my latest quilt! This first picture is my attempt at "arty"...I'm not really good at this. (Notice chickens in lower right corner- I should have turned them around - they have polka dots on them!)



The quilt pattern is Thimble Blossoms - A Piece of Cake. And the fabric is by Thimble Blossom too - I forget the name of the collection.It looks pretty spread out on the lawn in the back yard.



Here's a close up of the quilting. I love how it looks after you launder it and it gets all soft and crinkly.



I can't believe it is already Friday. I had big plans for sewing this week but nothing has happened yet. Maybe a little tonight and tomorrow. I still need to get the borders on my Charming Stars and I'm itching to start a new quilt - the one on the cover of the Dec/Jan 2012 issue of Quilt magazine. I want to do it out of my Debbie Mumm fabrics. Hopefully I'll get a couple of blocks cut out tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Happy stitching-
carol fun