Friendship Stars

I'm so excited to have this table runner finished.

There are 4 stars,

one made by me,

and the 3 others made by my dear friends :)

We met doing an apron swap.

We became instant friends.

These ladies are a big part of my everyday life now.

We have shared laughter and tears,

births and death.

We encourage each other

and pray for one another.

Denise had a brilliant idea last year

when we attended the Quilt Festival together.

She suggested we each buy the same charm pack

and then make something and swap them.

Well it was my turn to choose the swap theme

so I chose stars.

I love the way that they are all coming together!

I also love the way that each of us

is using the stars in a different way :)

And best of all,

everytime I use this runner I am reminded of our friendship :)

This is Amy's star runner.

I love how she used brown for the sashing.

I would have never thought of that and it's beautiful!

This is Denise's table topper.

I love the square design and her fabric choices!

I don't have a picture yet of Regena's runner.

(come on Gena.....I need pics!!!)

For my runner,

I used this June Tailor fusible batting

that I bought at Joann's during their 50% off sale.

I wouldn't use it for a quilt that you sleep under,

I prefer Warm & Natural for those quilts.

But for placemats, mug rugs and table toppers,

I figured I'd give it a try.

It's pretty awesome!

You just use the steam from your iron 

to sandwich your project.

No spraying and it does the top and bottom

of your quilt at one time!

Easy peasy....no mess.

So now that I actually finished a project

it's inspired me to work on some other UFO's

and get them finished.

Here's a peek at what I'm working on today :)

Blog Hop Party & Giveaway!!!

Hi everyone!

 If you are new to my blog, welcome!!! 

If you have been here before, welcome back!

 You guys are so amazing 

and your comments totally make my day...everyday!

Are you ready for a giveaway? 

It's been a while since I did one

 and I thought it would be a fun way to say "Thank you"

 to all of you who take time out to read my ramblings :) 

I'm excited to be participating

in the Blog Hop Party with Giveways

 hosted by QuiltingGallery.com! 

Make sure hop on over to their site

 begining Sunday Aug.26th 

for a full list of all the participants.

 So many great giveaways!

 So many chances to win cool stuff!

So how do you win my giveaway?

Well my favorite time of year

is just around the corner....

I'm going to borrow a term used by my dear friends.

They call this time of year - the "bers".....

(septemBER, octoBER, novemBER, decemBER)

Cute right?

So what can you win?

How about a set of Sweet Rolls by Moda?

This darling set comes with the pattern

to make a Sweet Treat Bag :)

Here are the rules:

Leave a comment and tell me 

your favorite thing about the "bers".

It could be a tradition, a food, a sport...anything.

I can't wait to hear all  about it!

You don't need to be a follower to enter.

If you are a follower, you have a second chance to win

by leaving me a SEPARATE comment letting me know :)

Deadline to enter is Sept 3rd.

I'll post the winner here on Sept 4th.

Good luck everyone!

A bit of black and red :)

I showed you the pics of my new bedroom quilt in progress

and it has plenty of black in it.

I wanted to highlight our black wrought iron bed frame

with pops of black in the bedding.

Of course I also have to include red :)

I changed the color of the flower pot to black

and used heavy weight black linen to make this pillow.

Come to think of it, 

I changed all the colors of this chart :)

It's called Love and Be Loved by

Thy Needle and Thread.

I stitched it on 36ct Country Mocha Edinburgh linen over 2 threads.

I just started stitching "Son of Chickens" the night before last.

I might have a small addiction to roosters.....just sayin'.

This will be a pillow for our living room when it's done.

I just love it!

Apparently the black and red theme 

has worked it's way into my sewing as well.

I made this apron yesterday using the 

 free apron pattern on Sew4home.

It's pretty awesome that you only need

5 fat quarters to make this.

I think it turned out cute :)

I'll be listing it in my shop today or tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow......

Don't forget to check back here 

for the Blog Hop Party with Giveaways!!!

I promise it will be fun!

I haven't done a giveaway in a while.

Will you be my winner?

Sweet Baby Girl :)

I spent the day yesterday sewing up these 7 pacifier leash sets

and matching drawstring bags.

I love the pink twill tape that reads "Sweet Baby Girl" on it.

Apparently I only had the ones for boys left in my shop.

Well that is just not fair, right?

These will be the last ones I make this year,

because I have lots of fun ideas for holiday stuff

coming up in the next few weeks.

I also have to get serious about Christmas gifts too.

When I went to M & L yardage today 

to pick up some more snap fasteners,

I stumbled across this fabric collection

that I tried very hard to walk away from.

*sigh*

I gave into temptation and brought some home.

The name of our Women's Ministry at church is Son Flowers.

How could I not buy this?

It says Son Flowers on it!

It must be a gift from above :)

I'll just keep telling myself that while

I stitch this into a lovely lap quilt for myself

one day in the very near future :)

All kinds of fun stuff...

This weekend was another International Hermit and Stitch weekend.

So that's what I did as often as I could :)

Cross stitch is so wonderfully relaxing for me. 

I just love it.

I'm working on this "Love and Be Loved"

 by With Thy Needle & Thread.

I'm going to finish it as a  pillow for my bedroom.

I also had to share photos of my beautiful granddaughters

 wearing their new jumpers.

This is Sofie and her beautiful Mommy :)

And this is Evie (little Ms. Independent)

They are just so adorable I almost can't stand it! 

And before I forget,

here is my ORT (old ratty threads) jar

for my August TUSAL report.

And last but not least,

I'm going to be taking part if the Quilter's Blog Hop Party with Give-aways!

You can jump over to QuiltingGallery.com  to learn more about it

or just come back here on August 25th to see what I'll be giving away :)

August FNSI :)

Last night was the Friday Night Sew In again.

How did August go flying past me?

Anyhoo....

I spent the evening making the 25 blocks

 for my new bedroom quilt.

Today I spent a few hours piecing the first part

of the quilt top.

I still need to decide how I want the borders to look.

There will be red in the borders of course :)

I love love love this fabric.

It's soooo much prettier in person.

We have a black wrought iron bed frame so I wanted

fabric with red, blue, yellow and black. 

It's not easy to find so when I stumbled across

"Shades of Blue" by Moda I knew I had to have it.

I bought the only remaining layer cake, jelly roll and charm pack

that I could find and a bit of yardage.

I added the red from the "Ruby" fabric collection.
I have to say, I'm likin it so far :)

What's cookin, good lookin?

I'm attending a bridal shower tomorrow

and this is the apron I made for the bride to be :)

I used the Pretty Ditty apron pattern again

but this time I made it reversible. 

I used leopard print for the reverse :)

You never know what will be on the menu

when there are newlyweds in the kitchen!

I girl has to be prepared right?

Come to think of it...

I may need one of these myself :)

so.....whatcha doin?

I should be working on an apron and potholders.....

but I'm not.

I'm doing a bit of quilt piecing :)

and a bit of cross stitch.....

So....

what are YOU doing?

Long time no sew.....

It seems like such a long time 

since I sat down at the sewing machine.

The hubs was off work for 3 days last week and we spent 

most of those days painting and getting our church ready

for the upcoming Harvest America Crusade.

Over the weekend we had his birthday party

and today I was able to get some sewing done...Yippie!

I made these 2 rompers for my baby girls Sofie and Evie :)

I used McCalls 3261 view F

and fabric from Sweetwater's Sunkissed collection.

I can't wait to see them wearing them.

The weather here has been HOT

so these should be perfect to keep those little cuties cool :)

20 Saturdays left.......

20 Saturdays left until what?

Until Christmas of course!

Time to start thinking about the holidays 

and get those projects started!

I ordered this darling table topper pattern 

from the Fat Quarter Shop

and was hoping to use Phenomenal Fall by Moda

but apparently when USPS said my fabric 

 was "out for delivery" on Friday...

they were only kidding.

Seems that no one really knows 

where my package is at the moment.

I didn't want to wait

 so I decided to bust out some of the random

Christmas charms I received last year when I took part

in a Christmas charm swap.

I grabbed 15 charms that looked good together

and cut them into 2 1/2" squares.

You can also use those darling little 

"mini" charm packs available now on etsy and ebay.

This pattern takes 60 squares.

I'm glad I made this one today as a trial run,

because the pattern doesn't specify what size binding

to use and I used 2 1/2".

I'll try 2" on the next one.

Because my binding was a bit wide, 

the scallops don't show as well as I'd like.

It was FTS (fun to sew) until I got to 

the binding of the little scallops.

Not so much fun as it turns out.

Pretty darn cute though when it's done right.

You can see that my binding is sadly lacking.......

I'm not throwing in the towel just yet.

I have 60 more squares cut out and ready

for round 2 of my little scallop binding adventure.

Wish me luck!

A bit of quiltie goodness :)

So for my Friday night sewing I ended up making theses blocks

from "another Bite of Schnibbles".

 I decided to make the "Tag-along" quilt.

On Saturday morning I worked on piecing the quilt top

and adding the sashing and outer borders.

Sometimes I buy fabric and it lingers in my home

for months or years.

But the minute I had my hands on "Give Thanks"

I just had to start quilting!

I love every print in the stack

except the Indian corn........

what were they thinking?

Oh well.....

I had to use it because with Schnibbles patterns

you pretty much use every tiny piece of 2 charm packs

to make one small quilt.

I  ended up going through my stash

to find a co-ordinating fabric because I didn't 

fully understand the cutting directions

and mis-cut some charms.

Luckily for me I had that fun brown with

polka dots that blended in well :)

I'm not saying that the directions were difficult to understand,

but maybe the glass of wine I drank while cutting played a small part?

After I had the quilt top assembled,

I decided that I didn't like the Oyster Kona I used

for the sashing and now I'm going to replace it with 

a sunflower yellow. 

It's actually a deeper yellow than it looks

in the photo.

I'm also planning on embroidering some

of the things I'm thankful for in the sashing.

We'll see how long it takes me to actually 

get this thing done!

Who's on first?

Today I get to sew just for the fun of it.

I love days like this :)

I decided to piece the table runner made from

the "friendship star" blocks that I told you about.

I used a pattern I've used once before here.

It looks so different in these fabrics.

I just love the way it's coming together

and I love the fact that the blocks were

made by my dear friends that I met online.

How awesome is that?

I know we'll be friends for life

and this runner will always remind me of our time together:)

I'm not quite sure yet how I want to quilt it.

Maybe some big stitch hand quilting?

We'll see :)

My wonderful mail carrier brought me some goodies 

these past 2 days.

I received by Old Fashioned Calicoes jelly roll

and 2 charm packs of Give Thanks.

I'm in love with both fabric lines!

And the fall charms are perfect for my home

because of all the reds in there!

Do you see that hounds-tooth?

Don't you just love it?

And did I mention polka dots?

Nuf' said :)

I have to decide on which Schnibbles pattern to use for the charm packs.

It's between these 2.

For the Calicoes jelly roll I have the pattern already picked out.

Now the only question is.........

Who's "on" first??????

August already????

It's so crazy to think it's already August!

How did that happen????

I'll admit that I'm pretty excited that it's almost fall again :)

I bought some fall charm packs on ebay last night

just to get into the mood :)

(ever since the Quilt Festival I've been itchin' to quilt something)

So this week I've been busy making a couple of custom orders.

This little guy is on his way to Orgeon.

And this guy hops on a plane tomorrow for Australia :)

I'm also working on a cross stitch Nativity.

I started on the Leaping Cat chart last week,

but lost my interest in it.

That's never happened before,

but I'm sure I'll pick it up again sometime soon.

Ha.....I just realized when I looked at this photo

that I forgot one of the gold stars!

I'd better fix that tonight :)

I have a big bag to sew for my daughter

to use to carry Sunday school materials back and forth

and a project bag that my Mom asked me to make

and an apron for an upcoming bridal shower.

After that.......

It's quilting time!!!

(my charm squares should be here by then)