Happy First February Friday!

Good evening my friends!  I hope you have had a nice winter thus far, we are still enjoying our 24° weather with snow now and again.  I love the snow.  Not so much the ice.

 

I took time this week to build a snowman.  He is waving hello!

I am quite excited to share some news, I had the honor of testing a pattern for my new friend Teresa, of Teresa Down Under. (The link will take you to her blog post about her new pattern release and where you can purchase it.)  She named the pattern "The Four Seasons of the Heart" because there are four ways you can assemble the quilt.

 

I used the 15-91 to sew my blocks together.

 

The pattern starts with a basic shoofly block.

And then you can make something like this:

 

 

I still need to quilt this little pretty, I am calling it the Ice Crystals Baby Quilt because when I was assembling it we were having ice storms all week, and the weather seems to have been reflected in my fabric choices.  A family friend had a baby that week too, so I figure he'll enjoy it (as soon as I get it put together LOL).  The actual block construction goes quickly and it's really neat that this pattern has four different ways you can lay it out starting with one simple block!  I had a blast testing and reviewing the pattern.  So much so that I signed up to test another lady's pattern the day after I was finished with Teresa's!

 

In the mean time, I have been sewing up a storm with some other blocks that have been catching my eye:

 

I was inspired by the block on the Freshly Pieced website but decided to change it up a bit after making the first block so that less fabric is involved where the points meet in the middle, and no paper piecing is involved.  I like to paper piece, but at the moment it is difficult to print anything (it involves driving in the weather we're experiencing).  This block is made with 60° diamonds.  I hope to put together a tutorial with my changes in the next week or so.

 



 

I spent most of my morning working on the Hunter's Star quilt and feel really good about it.  I had completed 24 blocks the last time I worked on it and decided this morning that if I add another 16, it should be large enough to cover my father.  So away I went!  I was very fortunate to find that our LQS still carries the fabric we had picked out for the backing three years ago, can you believe my luck?  I have increased the size of the quilt by quite a bit from when we first picked out fabric, so needed more backing.  Hopefully I have it all now.

 

 

I experimented more with this disappearing block, and found I can make this gigantic one starting with 10" squares.  I am excited to show it to the ladies of our local Quilts of Valor group tomorrow at the sew-in we are having.  They have blocks all ready to be sewn together tomorrow, but I am wondering if they may like a pattern for this one for the future.

 

In other news, my mom and I get to take a Chocolatier Class at Walla Walla Community College on the 11th and I am SO excited.  I can hardly wait, here is the class description:

 

In this Valentine's Day chocolate class we will be covering the basics of the chocolate-making process (from bean to bar), taste different types of chocolates, and learn gourmet chocolate recipes that you can tailor to your own vision. Chocolate truffles (with and without chocolate molds), fudge, and cake brownies will all be covered in this hands-on, two hour class. Experience why chocolate is considered to be the 'food of the Gods'.

 

This weekend is very busy, I have the sew-in all day tomorrow, a 21st birthday party for my cousin tomorrow night, and then Super Bowl Sunday to participate in.  We are having a chili feed on Sunday, which John is making a batch of chili for and I am bringing brownies.  It will be a great weekend, especially if the ice stops falling from the sky. :)

 

Thank you for stopping by, have a wonderful day!

~Brandy

 

Thomas has mixed feelings about the snow, he can see the birds a lot easier, but we never open the windows and let fresh air in anymore...

 

 Linking up to Busy Hands Quilts for