Today is the first day of the We Support You blog hop dreamed up by my friend Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt fame.  This blog hop was envisioned as a way to support all of those that have been touched by that nasty C word....Cancer.  I'm sure we all are connected to someone that has received that dreaded diagnoses.

To me this blog hop also can be for anyone else in your life that needs the support of her friends and that is who I'm creating my project for, a friend who needs tons of support for all that she has to deal with each and every day.  Here is a sneak peak.

Sorry.  That's all you get for now.  I draped the unquilted piece over the stair railing in my upstairs hall because I loved the way the early morning sun was filtering through the piecing and you can see the shadow of the bra design just a tad.

I'll be posting my finished project on the final day of the blog hop, Feb 11th but in the meantime, please visit all of the other fabulous quilters sharing with you each day.  The complete blog hop schedule is below.

After painting my studio a pale shade of Yellow right before I brought Penelope my longarm home I needed to put up some curtains so I used the old white sheers with embroidered edge detail that used to hang in our master bedroom at our old house. They worked because the studio window is double wide and couldn't be used in our current master bedroom since we have 4 windows there now.

 Here you can see the pretty edge detail a little bit better (sort of) along with my flying frog made of Jackfruit wood that is a good luck symbol in Bali and the other bits of fun I have hanging in the window.

But lately seeing them I've been itching for a change up plus the long panel in the center keeps getting in my way when stitching together big pieces. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I considered what I already had in my stash and came upon the Bonjour Mon Ami by Amanda Murphy FQ bundle that I had purchased from The Intrepid Thread.

The pale Yellow goes well with the wall color and the rest of the pallet works well with the other colors in the room without being too wild.  I hunted on the internet for ideas and finally came across one that was not just a bunch of squares sewn together and that suited my style a better.  Luckily I was able to hunt down the tad bit more that I needed to make my plan work (at $3.99 a yard too) and as soon as it arrived, I set to work.

I cut each of the fat quarters into 3" x 21" strips.

Part of my plan for this year in turning our abode's spaces into more eye pleasing rooms is to make some colorful items that will add some much needed pizazz.  That will include some pillows, table runners and a few wall hangings.

As I wanted a quick and easy project, I elected to follow someone else's pattern for my first pillow making endeavour.  I ended up choosing this Mini Charm Pillow tutorial by Sam Hunter on Janome's website.  I really like the small amounts of solid fabric around each square to break up the prints a bit.

 Photo from Janome's site.

Right before the holidays I stitched up my first pair of pillows.  Our playroom/library needed some oomph and I found the Social Club line by Eric and Julie Comstock for Moda the perfect choice and the blue color a great match for the room's curtains and the back of the new bookcases. Here is my result.

I chose not to make the frames mini blocks that Sam did and instead just sashed each mini charm in a layout that I liked.  I used Kona Snow for the sashing as it is what I had on hand and I was able to find some of the Blue/Teal alphabet print for the border.

I didn't copy the layout of the 1st pillow exactly for the 2nd one and that ended up being the right decision.  I like the way they compliment each other instead of being identical.

The envelope back was easy and I used the same alphabet print fabric. Like Sam, I like puffy pillows so these finished at 19" square and I stuffed a 20" pillow form inside.

Here they are on the older couch in the playroom/library.  I'm not going to show you the fabric on the couch underneath the slipcover but let me just say that it really isn't my style anymore.  But this couch was major expensive when we bought it, it still is really comfy and lots of years of use left in it plus it has an honest and truly awesome queen sleeper inside that comes in handy the occasional times we have house guests.

Now that the holiday decor is packed up and put away until next year., this couch turned out to the the best new home for my Castles on the Horizon quilt.  The great colors really liven up this space a ton.

So where did the Social Club pillows end up?  On the new couch in our great room of course.  I've never put any pillow on this couch before and as it turns out, my crew really like them there.  The kidlets both had one snuggled on their laps Saturday night as they were watching a bit of tv.

The funny part of this story is that when hubs first saw them on this couch, he asked me where I bought them.  They really were on the playroom/library couch for a few weeks before they were put away for the holidays and I know he saw them there.  I guess he didn't recognize them as the same pillows since they moved. :)

One of my biggest goals for last year was to limit my new fabric purchases and only buy what I really, really loved.  I started my plan of resisting fabric that I only Like and instead only buy those that I really Love in 2013 and I'm happy that I've been able to continue that plan again this past year. While lots of people do weekly or monthly stash reports, I don't but I wanted to see how I did for the entire year so I pulled out my receipts (Yes I keep them all, I am an accountant after all) and I made a list....of course.

Here is what I purchased during 2014 that was purely new stash additions.  This does not include any fabric that I bought to complete a specific project such as sashing or border yardage, quilt backings or the basic staples such as white solid yardage.  I consider my stash as those fabrics that I have no set plans for yet.

In looking back, I found that I bought absolutely nothing until March so these were the 1st purchases of the new year.  I got a trio of Color Me Happy by V and Co charm packs and a layer cake of High Street by Lily Ashbury.

In April I went to MQX East (which was fabulous btw) and wanted to bring back something for the kidlets.  Well a quilt show isn't a place where you find many things for kids so I got them these half yard cuts. They may end up being perfect for the backings of their Primary Bee quilts.

In May I had a blast meeting up with my friend Liz at the A World of Quilts show in Somers, NY and I was really good and only bought this Fancy Folded Star grouping, tutorial from Moda Bake Shop. I'll be making my set into a small wall hanging instead of a pot holder or hot plate.

So that is it for the 1st half of the year.  Not bad, not bad at all.  The 2nd half of the year brought more new fabrics into the house starting with these beauties.  In July my friend Alana and I finally checked out a new fabric store nearby and these just had to come home with me.  There are 1 yard cuts of Picadilly Lane by Brenda Pinnick for Henry Glass and a quad of half yard cuts of Stonehenge Starry Night by Northcott.

August found me in the Lancaster area for our annual China Travel Group Reunion and I was able to stop into Old Country Store where these Bobbins and Bits fabrics by Pat Sloan just screamed to me and the price was too fantastic to pass up. I'm really looking forward to a repeat visit to that store. While there I also got a duo of 2 yard cuts of White on White fabrics, which aren't the easiest to find around here, but they were impossible to photograph well enough so that you could see the prints

In September I caved and got a little more Ghastlies to add to my collection.  Since I heard that this was the final year this series would be available, I didn't want to miss out on adding a few of the newer prints to my stash but I was really restrained and only got half yard cuts of each. As you would expect, if Alexander Henry surprises us all and comes out with some new additions to the fun line, I'll just have to get some of those too.

I had also come across an awesome sale on this Simply Color so I bought 2 yard cuts in each of these prints. They will be used for a backing for my Color quilt, so technically these aren't "no specific purpose" fabrics.

My sister Tina and I attended the Q.U.I.L.T. Schenectady show in October and again I was very restrained and only brought home the Halloween panel and spider web yardage.  While nearby we also visited the new location of Quilt Bug where I found many Halloween prints on sale that I hadn't seen before so of course I had to get a few half yard cuts for my collection.

Craft Town fabrics was having a great sale too in October so I shamelessly bought the Sewing Box by Gina Martin jelly roll and charms, The Simply Style by V and Co charms (to add to the Simply Color and Color Me Happy charms that I already had) and the Daydreams by Kate Spain fat eighth bundle.

And lastly, though these really aren't stash fabrics to me since I am designing projects to use these in, during July I bought these Solstice by Kate Spain mini charms, the Moonlight Manor mini charms and the Eerie by Basic Grey charm pack, along with a pair of Social Club by Eric and Julie Comstock that I've already used.

So there you have it.  These are all of the stash fabrics that I bought during the previous 12 months.  I wasn't as restrained as I could have been but at the same time, I didn't go as hog wild as I could have either.  For this new year, I'm going to keep on the same path and only buy new fabrics that I simply can't stop thinking about.  I've learned that I don't need a huge pile of big cuts to satisfy my need to have a specific line.  A small amount in the form of a few charms or other cuts that I actually turn into something suits me just fine.

So what are your fabric buying plans for this new year?

I admit it publicly. I was a bad Bee momma in November. We didn't get the blocks done on time for November. The Castles on the Horizon quilt deadline for the Moda Bake Shop was first and foremost in my studio during that time and then once December hit, it was all out shopping, decorating and other prep for the holidays plus the added fun of having both kiddos birthdays to celebrate. Now I know that if I do have a late November or December deadline to meet, that I'll need to complete it super early.  Lesson learned!

Now that life is getting back to normal, the kids and I had the chance to get these blocks done.  This time it was for Tiny who's mom Chiska blogs over at Muddy Spring. Tiny requested a Friendship Star block in Light Blue (to represent the sky) and Yellow (to represent the Sun).

When I asked the kiddos who wanted to sew first they both said "Me" so we used our usual "Pick a Number" game and although Jammer won the game, he decided to let his sister go first.  Here she is concentrating on keeping the pieces lined up on the 1/4 inch foot straight. At least now she has learned to not have a death grip on the fabric.

Each sewing session she gets better and better at doing this herself.

Her favorite part....pushing the buttons to raise the presser foot and then then needed and then cutting the pieces apart.

After some pinning, some more sewing and some ironing by Mom, here is the result.

Jammer was up next and he was really concentrating hard as the fabric passed under the needle.  He had a couple of seams that were either way too fat or too skinny that we had to rip out and do over but little by little he is getting the "accurate seam" thing and seeing what happens when you do and don't get them just right.

Block finished.  Yes he did get frustrated a bit when he had to resew the couple of seams but once he saw the result he was proud of how the points came together better.

They still have to make the blocks for each other so we are going to try and work on some of those this weekend.  Sunshine has all of her other blocks and then we can plan the layout.  Jammer is still waiting for 4 more to come in from his bee mates but hopefully they will arrive soon and then he too can plan how the final layout will be.