I made it more work... again... on WIP Wednesday

If there is a way to take a wonderfully simply and creative pattern and make it more work, I will find it. It's a gift, dontcha know -LOL!  I did it with my Hugs & Kisses Jaybird quilt - you can see it here. And I found a way to do it with Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties which you can see here.

Here is my creation so far...

The top 3 rows are made following the wonderfully simple Bonnie Hunter pattern. The bottom row is made by taking the pieces and shuffling ala Stack a New Deck technique and making even busier blocks.

Here are the piece staged on my ironing board. After I cut all the blocks and stacked up the pieces I shuffled the first pile moved one fabric to the bottom, and the second pile I moved two fabrics to the bottom, and the third pile I moved 3 fabrics to the bottom of the pile and you get the idea. Lots of random busy-ness.

And if you've looked at my blog for any length of time you know I LOVE LOVE LOVE BUSY!

See top row busy... bottom row busier!!!

I'm having a blast with this pattern as I'm using my Kaffe Fasset fabrics and lots and lots of my black and white prints which include a generous helping of novelty fabrics - cupcakes, irons, fish carcasses, musical notes, scissors, paw prints, chicken  wire and ants just to name a few. I need to give credit where credit is due to Melinda, at Melinda Quilts, for the inspiration for this project - see her version here.

Now this new arrangement of wonderful busy-ness will require me to unsew those blocks in the top three rows. Luckily the blocks aren't sewn to each other yet so that eliminates a couple of seams per row. This will be a good project to do when I'm watching the Reds play baseball tonight. Hopefully they'll win again this evening.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday. Do go and check out all the awesome WIPs -you will enjoy it.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Stormy Day on Design Wall Monday

Thunder and lightning, LOUD, VERY VERY LOUD thunder and lightning - what a way to start the day. Big Dude spent the morning hiding under my bed, poor guy. He may be a big cat but he is also a fraidy cat when it comes to thunderstorms. However, while it is gray outside, my design wall is sporting some colorful blocks.

This is Alpha Bits and Pieces. You can see it here in the April edition of BHG American Patchwork and Quilting.

This is half of the quilt. I'm working from the top to the bottom and pulling fabrics for a block or two at a time. I'm going to re-do that big block at the bottom - its too light.

I do like playing with these spacer strips, so much opportunity to fussy cut and I love to fussy cut!

Now I believe in placing responsibility where it properly belongs and for these blocks I have to reveal that this is all Melinda's fault -- LOL!! Check out her blog here. She had a couple of these on her design wall last week and has even more of them on her wall this week, and I HAD to try it out.

The pattern is Scrappy Mountain Majesties, a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter that you can see here. And since Melinda already picked a wonderful palette - Kaffe fabrics and black and white prints. I just followed her lead. I have a bunch of the black and white cut out and hope to get to the Kaffe's later today, but first there are errands to do.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Stitching on Sunday

It is another beautiful day here in southwest Ohio and the stitching is coming along nicely. This is Rosy Morning by Blackbird Designs, the ninth release of the Loose Feathers Abecedarian Series.

The border sucked me into this one big time. I love a good border on a sampler and I particularly like a border that isn't the same on all four sides. Now I always worry that things won't join up when I'm stitching one of these borders but this one came off without a hitch.

And who can resist the wonderful quirkiness of a giant mutant bird standing next to a lovely turquoise-y blue house? Come on, admit it, it makes you smile too!

With baseball back in full swing I'm stitching a lot while I "watch", well actually listen more than watch, and look up when they replay things. And considering how my beloved Cincinnati Reds are playing some things are better off unseen. Oh well, it is a long season.

Hope things in your neck of the woods are going well - I'm off to do errands and go to the garden center. Today the weather is gorgeous, the rest of the week - rain rain rain rain rain rain - you get the picture.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts. Go check out what everyone else is working on. Lots of interesting projects.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Fun with bits and pieces on WIP Wednesday

I've had a bit of sewing time three days in a row - yeah!!! These are blocks for my newest project the quilt, Alpha Bits and Pieces, from the April 2014 issue of BHG American Patchwork & Quilting.

So far this is what I've accomplished, but its not the final layout. I'm calling those little 6" blocks donuts and barbells - do you see them?

Here we have 2 donut blocks and a spacer strip which has assorted fussy cut whimsies - a dot to dot sunshine and some vintage tape measures - love them! Oh and I got a cute teddy bear there as the filling in a donut block. (Don't bother to question my sanity - it has already been established that I'm slightly cracked - LOL!)

And here are two barbell blocks done in the wonderful Pezzy print and I worked in a old time-y telephone and a rooster -- ain't he handsome?

This yellow barbell block is one of my favorites so far. I love those vintage items and that elephant is too cute. The background is from what I think was one of the first American Jane collections called Peas and Carrots. Oh I wish I had more from that line.

The pattern calls for an outer border with those donut blocks having a center which is a letter of the alphabet. You can see it here in this post. This is one of the features that drew me to this quilt originally but now I'm not sure. I really love that tape measure fabric and want to use it as the border. Still mulling this over, and there are lots more blocks to make and time to think.

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced again this Wednesday. Go check out all the awesome projects over there.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Bits & Pieces on Design Wall Monday

My design wall is full of bits and pieces of stuff I'm working on. My Hugs and Kisses quilt by Jaybird only needs the last two rows sewn together. And while I told myself I wouldn't start another project until I finished that task,....well I tell myself lots of stories that aren't entirely true. LOL!

These three blocks are the start of another quilt. I love how it uses several fabrics in each block and I'm combining all of the collections of American Jane fabrics that I've been hording for soooooo long.

This quilt is called Alpha Bits & Pieces by Sandy Klop of American Jane. It was published in the April 2014 issue of BH&G American Patchwork & Quilting. I was able to purchase an alphabet panel in a red colorway. I love that this quilt will combine patchwork and a sampler -two crafts that make me very happy!

In the three blocks I've sewn I picked lots of my favorite American Jane prints.

Polka dots and ABCs...

Chickens and ABCs...

 And the trifecta...polka dots and chickens and ABCs!!!

I'm detecting a theme - dotty chickens that know the alphabet - what a theme! As I was selecting fabrics and sewing these blocks together I got to thinking about the size of this quilt and the size of the wall I want to display it on. Adjustments will need to be made. I'm mulling over possibilities and hopefully after making some more blocks I'll make a decision. No matter what I'm having fun playing with these fabrics. I LOVE American Jane!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

WIP Wednesday

This is the first Wednesday in about a month that I haven't had places to be, so I really enjoyed staying home and playing with my scraps. I was able to finish all the blocks for my Hugs and Kisses quilt. You can see the pattern here and can see that I put my own spin on this great pattern by Jaybird Quilts.

This will finish about 60" square and I was able to incorporate lots of novelty fabrics (I LOVE novelty fabrics) along with my stash of brights.

"Making" the fabric for this quilt was such fun that I couldn't wait to start another quilt. I assembled these two slabs - each is 8 1/2" inches wide and one is about 10 inches long and the other about 13 inches long.

I thought if I made chunks like this it would be easier to assemble a long strip for a full size quilt. Right now my plan is to do a strippy quilt with a bright dotty yellow fabric in between the "made" fabric, but that is certainly subject to change depending on my whims.

I'm linking this up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday - you can see it here.

Oh it was a very nice sewing day!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Bright bright bright on Design Wall Monday

So I was going to start a new project when I stumbled across a basket with these blocks in it. It is so old it seems new all over again and boy is is BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT! (Click to make it bigger and it is retina burning - LOL!)

Now I started with this pattern, Hugs and Kisses, by Jaybird Quilts.

True to form I took what is an easy design if you follow her pattern, and turned it into something more complicated and time consuming - oh I am sooooo good at that - LOL! Instead of using 2 1/2" strips I used fabrics of various widths and even pieced some tiny little bits together. It was fun but it takes time. Then because I wanted to use that sky fabric I didn't want to have seams running through it so I ended up making my own template and insetting it. Again another more time consuming step, but I do love the effect. It is kinda like you are looking through the Xs and out a window. Originally I planned to make this a lot bigger, but now I'm going to add two more rows to this and call it done. I already have enough parts cut and sewn together to assemble more than the 10 blocks I need. Should be an easy finish.... famous last words...we'll have to wait and see.

Here's some of the novelty fabrics I've gotten to play with...dragons, cats, mice and lady bugs - along with polka dots, checks and stripes  - yikes!

Oh look closely - there is a tiny polka dot chicken  not far from some sliced green peppers.

And last but not least my favorite swine - an oldie but goodie from KP Kids - oh I love them!

Hope to have some sewing time today, tomorrow and Wednesday. So far my calendar isn't too crazy and I certainly like that.

Happy stitching-
carol fun