Thursday, December 4, 2014

A quick share

Phew!  Christmas is upon our family, busy busy busy we are.  My mom owns a packing and shipping store, and I have been helping out.  Yesterday I made yarn pompoms (while I was at the store) and finished my Christmas apron. :)  Of course I don't have photos of those... but I have others to share!
 
I completed the tree skirt for my aunt:
 
 You may recognize this pattern, it was inspired by Deonn Stott's pattern which can be found here.  The difference is that instead of doing half square triangles I made full diamonds and squares and used y-seams.  Just my personal preference, Deonn's way is much easier I'm sure!  Plus, with my directional fabric I didn't want to think about how to piece the cuts together.  Anyhow, it turned out beautiful, and was a great learning experience.
 

 
I used a special stitch!  Looks snowflake-like to me.
 
Here you can see the quilting better, my sister says it reminds her of a poinsettia.
 
I came across Lori Holt's sew-a-long she hosted on her Instagram page and she had a free block I couldn't resist (and looking just now there are instructions for a snowman!!):
 
Isn't this amazing?  I'm making up quite a few, will be adding borders and using them for hotpads.  I'm fairly sure the buttons will be ok, they're pretty small.  I may actually set this block on point, then when you hang it you're seeing the block normally.  Hmmm...
 
Then I received wonderful news that I won a drawing from the Kona Cotton 30 Year Anniversary Blog Tour!  Valorie contacted me just this last Saturday, and yesterday I received a package from Robert Kaufman, eee!  Here's the link to the post about Valorie's quilt, I love how she came up with her pattern.  And here's pictures of the charm pack and tote I received:
 
I've already carried this all over the place today.
 
Charm pack and thank you card which states to be sure to #OMG303 and #KONACOTTON
as well as their hopes that I enjoy my prize.  I do, most definitely!
 
Look at these colors!!  I'm sew happy :)
 
And to top it off, John bought me flowers the other day, what a great guy.
 
Just beautiful.
 
I hope you are all in good cheer and enjoy the rest of December, I am unsure if I'll have another chance to post as the next two weeks will be the busiest of the year for my mom's store and then it's Christmas, but I'll try to get some more done and shared.  I do have some things to work on for John and my sister, now I just need to work on my organization skills to make those things happen.  Preferably not the night before Christmas!!
 
Happy sewing to you all, and to all a pleasant night!
 
~Brandy
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

T'was the Night - Day Three

www.sewwequilt.com
Oh happy day!  It's my turn on this wonderful blog hop, and I couldn't have been much more excited about participating in this one.  Not only do I love making small and quick projects, but I got to give one of them to a fellow quilter/blogger!  I just love giving homemade gifts.  Thank you very much to Marlene and Madame Samm for organizing this hop, I'm having such a wonderful time.  And thank you so much to all the others participating in the hop, I am loving seeing all the great ideas everyone has!  Be sure to hop over to my fellow ladies of the day, you can find the links at the end of this post.
 
First off, I wish to share with you what I received from Jill at Apple Avenue Quilts.  I was so excited to see what she made for me!
 
What a beautiful wrapping idea!  (sorry, I'm new to the idea of the use of ribbon.  So every time I see something wrapped in it I get all excited :)  )


I admire people with knitting skills, this is a beautiful washcloth Jill.

Buttons, yay!

And a couple great potholders, and perfect timing, I just had to retire a bunch because they were beyond saving.  I think you can't have enough of these, especially if you entertain ever.
Remember to go to Moose Stash Quilting next to see what I made for Joan!
 
And here are some ideas I found only took me a couple hours to make:

The Mortimer moose wall-hanging I made last year, you get the idea, small (it's only 17"x17"), simple patchwork, and simple applique.  Ta-da!  Stinkin' cute wall-hanging.  Then a patchwork pillow sham, a potholder using fancy fabric and flower shaped quilting, and some decorative stockings.

My great-grandma Pawlik inspired me when making these.  She made a bunch for the ladies in our family about 15 years ago, and we still all put them up for Christmas.  I'm hoping that will happen with my family when I'm a grandma someday!

Here are some more everyday-type gift ideas:
 

A project bag.  I love the size tremendously and got the instructions from Jina.  Not only will it hold all your sewing items you'd need, it is also the perfect size for a cosmetic bag, or to hold snacks on a car trip, or colored pencils and a small drawing pad... so many options!

A plastic bag holder.  My grandma Kathy showed me how to make these on Sunday, thank you grandma!  This one has already been claimed by my sister, which fits, she has a rooster-theme going on in her kitchen. 

And a lap quilt.  So this is the same idea as the self-binding baby blanket from Missouri Star Quilt Co, I just made it as large as I could while maintaining the 10" difference between the small and large piece of fabric.  I also managed to get a layer of batting in there, it took some finagling...

John agreed to model my lap quilt for me, wasn't that nice?
 
While I'm happy with the gifts I created, I believe my favorite last minute gift is the sweetest, and that is homemade candy!  Here's my dad's favorite recipe:
 
 
Chocolate Peanut-Butter Balls
1 C peanut-butter
1 C powdered sugar
1 package chocolate chips
 
Melt chocolate chips using whatever method you prefer.  Double boiler seems to be the most popular.
Prepare a jellyroll pan by laying out a piece of wax paper on it.
Mix PB and sugar together, roll into 1 inch wide balls, and dip into melted chocolate.  Place on jellyroll pan, and when the pan is filled place PB balls into fridge to set.
That's all there is to it!  You could then make a fabric box like Connie talks about in this post, line it with parchment or wax paper and fill it with these yummies for a quick treat too.
 
Here are the other ladies who are showing their gift ideas today:
 
Pampered Pettit - that's me!
 
Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! 
~Brandy



with love to Konnie the cat, we'll miss you this Christmas my furry little sister

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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Short on time this holiday season? Follow this hop!

I'm so excited for this blog hop that started today, there will be so many great ideas for quick gifts!!
 
T'was the Night blog hop schedule:
 
Tuesday, Nov. 11

Wednesday, Nov. 12 

Thursday, Nov. 13

Friday, Nov. 14

Monday, Nov. 17


Tuesday, Nov. 18

Wednesday, Nov. 19

Thursday, Nov. 20

Friday, Nov. 21
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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Fat Quarter Shop-2015 Snapshots Quilt-Along/Fundraiser


I'm super excited about next year's sew along Fat Quarter Shop is doing, not only does it support one of my favorite fundraising endeavors (St. Jude's Hospital for Children) but this quilt totally speaks to me!  I can hardly wait to get this started, and it will be the first Block of the Month I'll have participated in.  Yay!
 
http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/search/label/Snapshots%20Quilt%20Along
 
Isn't this wonderful?!  Click on the link at the top to get more information.
 
If your looking for my Black Cat Crossing post, keep scrolling down, it's just below :)
 
~Brandy
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Black Cat Crossing-Day 4

Welcome!  My name is Brandy and I'm so happy you've stopped by to visit.  I was really looking forward to the day when Mdm Samm announced this year's Wicked hop so I could join, because it marks the one year anniversary of my being a part of the blog hops!  I love participating, I find I accomplish more projects and pushed myself further creatively than I would have without the "gentle push" from the ladies who organize these hops.  So thank you very much Mdm Samm and Wendy for allowing me to participate again this year.  And thank you to Maywood Studio for bringing Black Cat Crossing into our lives, I LOVE this line of fabric.  And I have really enjoyed seeing what the other participants have created with this line as inspiration.
 
 
 
I was immediately struck with the idea of a cat crossing my piece, whatever it decided to evolve into, when I first heard the name of the fabric line.  It started out a bit larger than it ended up, but that's how it goes sometimes.
 
When I saw the fabrics in the Black Cat Crossing line I was so happy to see the richness of the colors used.  And then I realized I had a smallish budget to work with, so ordering online was out of the question and neither quilt shop in town nearby carried the line.  And then it happened!  John allowed me to drag him to 9 different quilt shops on a 315 mile trip in one day and one of the shops we went to had the ENTIRE line!  The shop is in Prosser, WA and called The Sewing Basket and oh my lord, that lady has everything.  I've never seen a shop like hers, I loved it!  It's totally worth the hour and a half drive from our house.  Here's a picture of John in the middle of the room full of Halloween fabric, he's deciding which one I'm allowed to use for my project.
 
 
My design has a cat crossing a fence on a dark night while branches are reaching for him.
 
I used this project as another opportunity for practicing my free motion quilting (FMQ) and used a double layer of batting to help the cat and branches stand out a bit more.  We decided the FMQ looks like fog.  You can see here the fabric that we ended up choosing.  Although I may be going back for some of that orange and black harlequin...
 
And here's the finished piece!  We now are the proud owners of a wicked wall hanging.  :)
John and I went to Pioneer Park to get some photos:
 

Isn't the fence fabric fantastic?  When John saw it he said, "that's fencing material right there".  I discovered something veeerrrryyyyy interesting about this fabric when I was cutting it up:
 
It seems that the devil is in the details on this one!
 

 
This has been fun, please be sure to visit the other ladies I'm sharing my day with:
 
Thursday, October 23
VroomansQuilts
Lovelli Quilts
Pampered Pettit
TeaTimeCreations  
Whims and Fancies 
 
 
I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!
~Brandy
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Monday, October 20, 2014

Black Cat Crossing Full Schedule




This hop started today!  Please visit my friends and leave them comment love!
 
 
Monday, October 20
Why Knot Kwilt?
Lixie Makes It
Miss Priss Quilts
The Slow Quilter
Patchwork Sampler

Tuesday, October 21
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Coeur d'Alene Gifts
It Seams To Be Sew…
A Geeky Crafty Place

Wednesday, October 22
Creatin' in the Sticks
Living With Purpose
Moose Stash Quilting
Lines, Color, and Art

Thursday, October 23
VroomansQuilts
Lovelli Quilts
Pampered Pettit
TeaTimeCreations      
Whims and Fancies  

Friday, October 24
Just Let Me Quilt
Buzzing and Bumbling
Thimblemouse & Spouse
krislovesfabric
Quilt Doodle Doodles

Monday, October 27  
Ridge Top Quilts
Dancing Moon
Kwilt Krazy
Lydsfire Sewing
Grandmama's Stories

Tuesday, October 28
Selina Quilts
Jane's Quilting
Quilted Delights
Words & Stitches
Seams To Be Sew

Wednesday, October 29
That's Sew  Julie
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Quilting Queen Online
Sew Peace To Peace
A Stitch in Time     

Thursday, October 30
On the Banks of Frog Creek
How Art You?
Cucki Stitching Cove
Dancing Moon Farmstead
Life in the Scrapatch 

Friday, October 31
From My Carolina Home
Mammy Stitches
Bumbleberry Cottage
Just Because Quilts
Sew We Quilt

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Friday, October 17, 2014

Progress report

I was so productive last weekend, I could hardly believe what I accomplished!
First of all, here's photographic evidence that I do work on the quilt my grandma asked me to do!
 
Never mind the fact that I have to eat cookie dough while I'm working on it... hee hee!
 
Thank you Jen (my sister) for getting such an intense focus-face picture :P
 
Progress piles
 
These have been pressed and await assembly.
 
This is actually a block that was already pieced.  When my grandma and her sister were working on it they would piece an entire block, then enough to make a row, then piece the rows.  There are 3 rows worth done I believe, which was nice to realize when I went through and counted the number of blocks I still need to assemble.
 
Then I started on a tree skirt for my aunt from Montana.
 
Oooo, aaaahhh
 
But wait, there's more!  My goodness, a sunny Saturday morning!
 

And top complete!  This is inspired by Deonn Stott's pattern, but she used half-square triangles in hers and that would not have worked with this horse fabric, so I went with full pieces and Y-seams.  Y-seams don't bother me, and it only took ~2 hours to get this together!  I am going to find some gold thread and quilt feathers in the star and use black thread for some poinsettia-style pattern in the horse fabric.  As soon as I locate some black batting.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks or so.
 
Block of the month for guild, John really liked this one.  He said it works nicely with this particular fabric.
 
Our guild meeting was this last Tuesday, and we're voting in our new board members next meeting, so they are making the President a thank you quilt and these are the blocks they wanted us to make.  Not so much my style, but hey, it's not my quilt!  And doing these blocks just drove home that I don't like seams that don't line up!


And then I practiced my free-motion quilting on my Bernina the last couple days:

 
 
I'm really liking how this looks on the back side, which I'll get a picture of when it's done.  This particular pattern (they call it Paisley) is very time consuming for me, and difficult as I am not following a set pattern which my brain rebels against.  So I'm taking my time and telling myself it's ok to not be EXACTLY perfect in everything I make.  :D  I am definitely getting better at controlling my stitch length I noticed, which is great.  Practice practice practice!  Then eat more cookie dough.
 
So I also worked on my two upcoming Blog Hop projects, one for the Wicked Hop (see button at the top of the column on the right) and a couple things for the Twas the Night hop.  Wicked starts on Monday (!!!) and my day is Thursday the 23rd, so stop on by to see what I came up with!  Both hops are through www.sewwequilt.com, swing by Mdm Samm's site to see what they are all about.
 
Thank you for stopping by, see you again soon!
 
~Brandy
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