Teddy Bear October Block of the Month

I'm running late this month in getting this block released, life just got too busy and I didn't manage to get it done.   My apologies to all who have been waiting for this.

This months pattern is Charles, the Navy Sailor.   He's dressed in is white uniform and waiting on the deck of the ship that he's been deployed on and ready to see his family again.

The block will stay up as a free BOM through the month of November, with the next block released the first of December.

To download the pattern, click here to go to my Craftsy site where I have the pattern.


Gratitudes:

1. Patient blog readers!

2. For having a weed-whacker that enabled me to at least whack down the tall stuff in the front yard last weekend.

Stretching Art 20th year

The 20th anniversary edition of the Stretching Art challenge has a theme of "Twenty" which left me blank on what to do.

I've decided to do something using Fractals.  For those that don't know what a fractal is, the best definition that I've found online is this - "A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop."  From The Fractal Foundation.

Currently I'm thinking I may use some of my stash of silks to make the circles.  I've a couple of fabrics with opalescent dots all over them that will make a nice background for the quilt, and I'm hoping that I'll have enough for the binding on it as well.

Current layout idea is something along the lines in my sketch.   There will be 20 circles, or parts there of since some of them may drift off the sides of the wall-hanging.

I even already have an idea of how to quilt this critter.   Woohoo.........and it's well before the due date for a change.   Of course that is because I'm taking part in an Art Quilt Blog hop and needed something for that........lol.

Now where did I put my compass so I can draw all those circles......hmmmm.


Gratitudes:
1.  Off work early today to go vote

2.  A new commission received yesterday to make 4 pillows from a wedding gown.

Current projects, new starts, and weekend plans

Yes, I've got multiple projects going on these days.....ya'll would think I'm sick if I was only working on one thing at a time.......and I know I would be.  LOL

This passport wallet is almost finished.  Just a handful of steps left once I get some more pressing done on pieces.  This should be done tonite.

All blocks have been completed for the sample quilt for the next quilt I'm planning to submit for publication.  String blocks are approx. 8 to 10 yr old UFO blocks (and nope, I didn't use them all).  I won't be showing the completed quilt here at this time since I plan on submitting the design for publication.

Fabric for the next three wallets - the wolves for the one that needs to be remade, then two drapery samples that I bought years ago for something like $1 a piece.  The animal print is a lightweight cotton duck.  Haven't decided what I'm going to use as a coordinate, might just do a black Kona.

Close up view of the third fabric from above.  This is an embossed polyester, leather-look drapery fabric.  I love how it looks like tooled leather.  I have no idea what to use for a coordinate on this one.

Both sample pieces are 18" long by about 15" or so wide.

And the final one I want to start is this denim with embroidery.  It is a 60" wide border 'print' so I've lots of fabric to work with.  I love the richness of the flowers on this.   This may be the first one I start after cutting the sections for the wolves.


Gratitudes:

1. Weather is due to improve!

2. Tight finances mean I have extra opportunities to trust in and lean on God's provision for my life.

October 24th to-do's

How is it possible time is moving so quickly these days?   It's been 2 weeks since I looked at my to-do list and 


Blog / General -
-- Art Quilt Blog Hop Post, Due November 2018 - still need to decide on which quilt I want to feature in this post  - deciding between two finished quilts, and my stretching art quilt for this year
-- Go to quilt Store and pick up Row-by-Row quilt - scheduled for the end of October
-- Military Teddy Bear #2 release post, pattern to Craftsy - still working on this


Pattern Designing / Quilt Challenges:
-- Military Teddy Bear #2 - written, Awaiting final review and release
-- Military Teddy Bear Setting
      -- Pattern needs to be written, reviewed and released

-- MQG Michael Miller Challenge - due last week of November for submission to QuiltCon
      -- Piece backing
      -- Decide on quilting - motif or quilt from the back based on backing fabric
      -- Quilt top on small machine
      -- Bind quilt
      -- Enter quilt show online

-- Stretching Art Quilt Challenge, theme= "20", due January 2019
-------- Decide on design, getting closer
-- Ready & ship Quilt for entry into Road to CA if juried in
-- MQG Mini Swap Quilt - Signed up, waiting to find out partner 
           (will be announced in early Nov 2018, due to be mailed out end of January 2019)
-- Mystery submission for either Fons & Porter or Make Modern - design complete, top in process


Quilting -
-- Applique saying (Bear Hugs) onto filler strip of Scrappy teddy bears
-- Make November F2F blocks (3) and mail - gotta find fabrics first!

-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Snail quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Kitten quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Puppy quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Hatbox quilt (for sale?)
-- Quilt and bind Teddy Bear quilt for Valerie
-- Giftie for Shoebox swap - due the middle of November
-- Quilt and bind whale and anchor baby quilt, list for sale
-- Make first set of curtain panels the F2F blocks will go onto
-- 

Commissions -
-- Winter tote bag for Susan, due before mid-Oct - Done and mailed!
-- Wolves Passport Wallet - Finished, but needs to be redone with new coordinating fabric due to customer preferences
-- Passport wallets for sale

Possible Commissions (dependent on things outside of my control) -
-- Music Quilt, due before Christmas (dependent on getting a NR deposit)
-- Finish Christmas Stocking, due before Christmas (dependent on getting a NR deposit)
-- Msg gal who has tops to be quilted
     ---- Msg sent 10/3, No response - assume not likely to happen
    
Ebay Postings:
-- Completed passport holders (7)
-- Quilt Magazines
-- Embroidery Floss
-- Finished Quilts
-- Vintage daisy and button, Fenton glass collectables (canoe, shoe, top hat, pitcher, cauldron, xxxx)


House:
-- clean up dead branches and trim trees/bushes in the back yard
-- figure out how to deal with the front door and how to pay for it.  Will need help with this one


Gratitudes:
1. For finally being able to figure out how to get into the user panel for my website....

2. For days when I don't have to drive in rain on the commute (not today....sigh)

Weekend wrap-up

I made progress on a couple of fronts and found new/old projects to start or restart as well......although not as much as I might have wanted to make, but that is the way thing go at times..


First up was finishing this passport wallet.   It was to be the last of the commissioned ones, but the gal doesn't think the coordinating fabric works well with the wolf fabric.   So I'll be remaking it and using black Kona for the coordinating fabric.

Will end up listing this one for sale.

Outside shown here.






And the inside of the wallet where you can see the coordinating fabric better.












I then got distracted by the state of things and started going through things in the craft room and the fabric room.   As I worked on condensing and emptying totes, one of the things that I found was this piece.    The strips had been leftover from a long ago project and I'm not sure now what I was going to do with it. 

However, I've decided to make a snack mat out of it, but think it needs some sort of applique scene on it.  Not sure what though, anyone have an idea?



And this next UFO project that was found in my stash as I went thru stuff this past weekend started with a reminder of it when I saw this fabric on eQUilter.com.

I love it and would love to use it for the backing on my London Tea  Towel wallhanging.........however, I just can't see buying more fabric (even with the gift cert. that would at least pay for shipping) just because I love it.

My London Tea Towel quilt.  Started with a challenge to use a tea towel to make a quilt.   I bought a souvenir tea towel on ebay and then designed blocks to be added to it to showcase fabrics I had bought while in London back in 1997.  

It has been aging since making it several yrs ago and is time to get it quilted.

I already own this fabric, so will most likely use this for the backing of the above quilt rather than buying more. And this really does tie in better with the quilt top.

The final new start over the weekend was a new design that will be submitted to Make Modern digital quilt magazine for possible publication.


These blocks (more than 100 of the string batik blocks, and two 3D bowtie blocks) have been in my UFO block totes since at least when I was in Lafayette....and that has been almost 10 yrs now.   Time to use them!

I've a new design sketched out and have started making the remaining 3D bowtie blocks that I need to complete it.  I've made about 22 blocks and need about 3 times that many more.   Precut squares of assorted WOW's are being used for the backgrounds, and assorted precut scrap batik squares are the centers.

The design is a modern interpretation/layout of traditional blocks.

Gratitudes:

1. I love rain, but am thankful for all the sunshine these last few days after all the rain that we've had.

2. For the blessings of my church small group and their prayers.

Making Progress

Made progress yesterday on projects....

This scrappy top was finished before I headed into work.

Details:
54" by 72" finished size
65 - 6" finished 4-patches
43 string-pieced setting blocks
Approximately 140 different fabrics all from scraps used in it.

 And almost finished off the final commissioned passport wallet.  Just the binding and button closure to go on it now.   Will be able to deliver all three on Monday when I come into work.....yippee!


Gratitudes:

1. Two mornings drive in without rain

2. It's Friday and that means the weekend is coming.  =)

Squirrel Tracks...........

I found this still shot taken from the movie " " when doing a google search for something and thought it was all too appropriate for me and how my quilting usually goes.  The scene is one from the movie "Up" captioning added by someone else (found on TheMetaPicture.com).

This reminds me of what I'm like as a quilter.

A remnant of embroidered, light-weight denim.  Embroidery is along one selvage.  I fell in love with this piece.   Current plane is to fussy cut the sections (there are 3 of them) and then applique each of them onto a cover for a passport wallet and the finish as normal.

This has me wondering what other embroidered denims might be in my stash that would for the wallets....hmmmm, time to go stash diving sometime.

Top two here are quilting cottons and the bottom print is a home dec weight cotton.   I thought the thread spools and the bottom one might appeal to quilters.

Lovely travel prints - black/white one was a remnant.  Both of them are home dec fabrics.

Left-hand fabrics are quilting cottons, right hand one is a home dec fabric.

And lastly, the quilt license plate fabric from last year......again to appeal to quilters.  =)

So many cute fabrics to act as squirrels for me.....lol.



Gratitudes:

1. I may need to make things to sell, but at least I've got cute fabrics to work with.

2. For good possibilities to sell what i make.

Mid-week Progress

Slow progress this week.........

This has been trimmed to size........but I need to do a wee bit of squaring up on that left side 'cause it isn't straight....argh.   Or I may just leave it and finish as is.  Still thinking about thread color and I'm thinking about using a variegated grey Aurifil thread for the top, and maybe a black or dark grey for the back.









This is the Michael Miller backing fabric that I found at Hobby Lobby.  Colors are perfect for the required colors.  I'm was tempted to quilt this one from the back, but am sticking to my initial plan with the motif that fits with the blocks.

Hand basting session coming up on it because I don't want to deal with pins while quilting it.

I've started the final commissioned passport wallet.   Everything is ready for me to start the stitching and putting it together.

More progress has been made on this.   And two more rows have been sewn on since this picture was taken last night.   Just the top row remains (all 4-patches).

I'm thinking of submitting this design for possible publication to Make Modern Magazine which is a digital quilt magazine. 

I'd have to make another sample, but it goes together quickly and I've plenty of scraps to make it out of.  Any ideas for color combos should I need them?

Gratitudes:

1. God got me safely to work in the rain, in spite of a windshield wiper that was doing its best to totally come apart on my drive in at 5 am.

2. For a new wiper blade that works wonderfully!

Quilt Shop Anniversary....

The closest quilt shop to me is Stitchin Heaven (an hour away) and they celebrated their 22nd anniversary this past weekend.  they were running some great sales to celebrate - buy 11 yds of fabric - get 11 free, buy 11 notions/thread/books - get 11 free, and buy 11 FQ's - get 11 free.   

 I did take advantage of the FQ's and the thread sale.   And picked up a couple of pieces of yardage.   I'm thinking the license plates fabric will make some cute passport wallets.






In addition to the sales, from what I've found out each year they give away something in the same amount as the years they've been around.   This year it was 22 quilts.   For the last 6 weeks everyone who made a purchase of a certain level got a raffle ticket.   To win though you had to be present on Saturday.  People could win more than one quilt. 

I was fortunate to win two quilts.   The first one being this Christmas quilt.    It is a lap quilt size.   And even more fun, it has miniature lights as part of it.   It'll be a fun one to display at Christmas since I don't have a tree anymore.

And the second one that I selected was this wallhanging.   I need to do a wee bit of stitching on it because the "in progress" words are only ironed on and they aren't holding well.  But that is a minor thing.   Need to find a place to hang it as well.


Gratitudes:

1. Lots of rain which was needed here (altho we didn't need the flooding!)

2. For God's enabling of me to continue to pay off debt in spite of all that is going on these days.

Scrap Happy October

While looking for something else I ran across several bags of squares that I'd cut from scraps years ago, so long that I've forgotten exactly when I cut them.   I do know I've moved them 3-4 times so that's at least 5 yrs now. 

Rather than put them away again I decided to actually use them, so I drew up this scrappy quilt to help use up the red & blue squares that I found.   

First step though was to work with the scrap strips and strings that I had of various COC's to make strip sets and string blocks to use in the quilt. 











Once they were trimmed to size, I started making 4-Patches from the red and blue squares.   Blocks are 6" finished.

Once I got a bunch of them made I started putting them together to see how the quilt would look. 

Stats at this point for fabric counts -

COC's - 79 or 80

Red's and Blue's - about 30-35 each.

I stopped at this point in order to make more of the 4-patches.  I should be able to finish it up this coming week by sewing on it before I head to work in the mornings.

It most likely will be donated to American Hero's.

Gratitudes:

1. For being able to drive safely in yesterdays torrential rains while I was out running around.

2. For the new roof that was put on before I moved in here.

Mail Surprise

This week was  a blessed one -

I arrived home from work on Tuesday after a rainy drive home to find a surprise package on my doorstep.  Inside was a wonderful wall-hanging as a sweet house-warming gift from a sweet group of online friends.

 Full pic of the quilt

The idea for the quilt from KTJ

 Top panel - from Roseanne

Sides - from Margaret

Side - from Margaret

Bottom - from Edi

Center - from Susan

And a label made by Susan listing all of them. 


Gratitudes:

1. For friends who do sweet surprises like this!

2. For my vacation being approved for Christmas time, along with the 5 weeks where I'll have a Friday off.....woohoo.....

Goals - Week of Oct. 10th and onward

Progress was made last week........unfortunately I added things to the list so I'm not sure I made progress....lol


Blog / General -
-- Art Quilt Blog Hop Post, Due November 2018 - still need to decide on which quilt I want to feature in this post
-- Go to quilt Store and pick up Row-by-Row quilt - scheduled for the end of October
-- Military Teddy Bear #2 release post, pattern to Craftsy


Pattern Designing / Quilt Challenges:
-- Military Teddy Bear #2 - Pattern needs to be written, reviewed and released
-- Military Teddy Bear Setting
      - Bind finished wall hanging and photograph - Done 10/07

      - Pattern needs to be written, reviewed and released

-- MQG Michael Miller Challenge - due last week of November for submission to QuiltCon
      -- Precut fabric pieces - Done, 10/3
      -- PP blocks (11) - Done, 10/9
      -- Assemble top - Done, 10/9
      -- Piece backing
      -- Trace quilting motifs onto tissue paper
      -- Quilt top on small machine
      -- Bind quilt
      -- Enter quilt show online

-- Stretching Art Quilt Challenge, theme= "20", due January 2019
-------- Decide on design
-- Ready & ship Quilt for entry into Road to CA if juried in
-- MQG Mini Swap Quilt - partners will be announced in early Nov 2018, 
                                    due to be mailed out end of January 2019


Quilting -
-- Bind baby quilt and send it out - Completed and mailed out, 10/6
-- Applique saying (Bear Hugs) onto filler strip of Scrappy teddy bears
-- Bind Military Bear wall-hanging and photograph - Done 10/07

-- Make November F2F blocks (3) and mail - gotta find fabrics first!
-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Snail quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Kitten quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Scrappy Puppy quilt, list for sale
-- Quilt and bind Hatbox quilt (for sale?)
-- Quilt and bind Teddy Bear quilt for Valerie
-- Giftie for Shoebox swap - due the middle of November
-- Quilt and bind whale and anchor baby quilt, list for sale
-- Make first set of curtain panels the F2F blocks will go onto

Commissions -
-- Winter tote bag for Susan, due before mid-Oct - In Progress
-- Ladybug Passport Wallet, due before end of Oct - Done 10/6
-- Wolves Passport Wallet, due before end of Oct
     -- Cut fabric sections
     -- Make pockets (double, single, zippered, phone)
     -- Layer main body of wallet
     -- Add pockets and Velcro to main body
     -- Add binding, elastic loop and button to main body
-- Passport wallets for sale

Possible Commissions (dependent on things outside of my control) -
-- Music Quilt, due before Christmas (dependent on getting a NR deposit)
-- Finish Christmas Stocking, due before Christmas (dependent on getting a NR deposit)
-- Msg gal who has tops to be quilted
     ---- Msg sent 10/3, No response - assume not likely to happen
    
Ebay Postings:
-- Completed passport holders (5)
-- Quilt Magazines
-- Embroidery Floss
-- Finished Quilts
-- Vintage daisy and button, Fenton glass collectables (canoe, shoe, top hat, etc)


House:
-- clean up dead branches and trim trees/bushes in the back yard
-- figure out how to deal with the front door and how to pay for it.  Will need help with this one


Gratitudes:
1. Fall Temps are here with highs in the 60's and 70's and lows into the 50's........woohoo, I can dig out the longer sleeved tops for work again

2. For friends who send surprise housewarming gifts

More F2F Blocks Arrive

Two more sets of wonderful blocks arrived this past week. 

First up - Claire's lovely blocks

And then Lynn's wonderful blocks.

Gratitudes:

1. Rain is here, maybe I'll end up with more green in the backyard than just the dandelions.

2. Vacation time has been approved - Phx here I come........ =)

UFO Weekend wrap up

Made progress on several projects -

Binding was sewn down on this wall hanging.  Now to write up the pattern for it so it can be released with the next BOM block.

The binding was sewn down on this UFO quilt.  Finished size was approximately 48" square.  Blocks were from a long ago Favorite Fabric Swap with a group of online friends.   There just enough left of the border fabric to make the binding with no scraps leftover.

This has gone in the mail to my niece as a baby gift for her new daughter.

Backing and label.

And close up of the the Label for the quilt.

Final thing finished was this commissioned passport holder.   Finally figured out how to easily put in a zippered pocket on it.


Gratitudes:

1. Unexpected half day holiday here at work today....woohooo


2. Rain held off over the weekend.