Stunning Stitchin Sunday - a Monday edition

As usual, yesterday morning I had good intentions to get this post done for you but something else ended up taking up a bunch of my time and it will be so worth it.  This pretty thing will be mine tomorrow!  It is a brand new Toyota Rav 4.

I'm not a fan of the whole car deal negotiating thing (I don't know anyone who is) but I did a lot of research before we went and we are happy with the deal we got.  I currently have a 10 year old Ford Escape with only 85,000 miles on it but it is time to get rid of it before we have to start putting some serious money into it....it needs new tires and brakes and who knows what else.

It will be fun to have all the great features this includes.  My Ford has absolutely no technology but now I will get to enjoy a backup camera, blue tooth, USB ports and dual climate control. Plus the power moon roof is standard for this model which I've loved having in my current vehicle.  This is going to be fun.

Anyway, I still want to share with you all of the beautiful quilting I've come across lately.

1. Piece N Quilt, 2. Tanderwen Quilts, 3. Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting Blog, 4. Piece N Quilt,
5. Happy Quilting, 6. Pumpkin Patch Quilter, 7. Geta's Quilting Studio, 8. The Nifty Stitcher,
9. addicted-to-fabric, 10. Piece N Quilt, 11. Tanderwen Quilts, 12. Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works, 13. Ivory Spring, 14. Quilting is My Bliss, 15. Piece N Quilt, 16. Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works,
17. Tanderwen Quilts, 18. Tanderwen Quilts, 19. Piece N Quilt, 20. I Dew Quilting

And in case you missed the big announcement on Saturday, some new fun happenings are starting up here.  Go to this post to read all about it.  I hope you decide to join the party.

A different kind of quilt along

Today I'm starting a different kind of quilt along and you might want to play along too.

Here's how this idea came about.....a couple of months ago my friend Katie of Karma Willow Designs posted how she was trying to make some progress on making her Tula Pink City Sampler blocks and was sort of stalled in the process. I've seen so many versions of this around the quilting blogisphere when the book came out and when Sara of Sew Sweetness hosted her quilt along that I got sort of interested in eventually making one too.

I don't know about you but over the past 8+ months I've had a hard time actually making into my studio to do even just a little sewing.  That doesn't make me happy and I desperately need to change that.  

So....when I read Katie's post, I proposed to her that we cheer each other on in our quest to make a City Sampler and in the process we will be each others' cheerleader to applaud our accomplishments.  She loved this idea and I was lucky enough to quickly find this copy of the book on one of the Facebook destash sites that I belong to for $8.  Whoo hoo for bargains!

Then....we thought why not invite others to join us....to motivate and cheer each other on to complete individual blocks and eventually an entire quilt, whether it be all 100 blocks or some lesser quantity. 

This is what we've decided to do:

This will be a no time commitment quilt along...

no deadlines, no expectations, no pressure.

If you make any progress during the month Great!  If not there is always the next month.

I'll do a linky party on the 15th of each month where we can share our accomplishments and cheer each other on.

I don't know what Katie's plans are as far as when she wants to finish her quilt but I'm hoping to complete mine within a year, hopefully less.  Since most of these blocks can be sewn together in 15-30 minutes it will at least give me a few minutes of play on more days and slowly but surely work my way towards finishing the project.

This 1st linky party is for whomever wants to join us and will be open until August 14th.  If you want to sew with us, just post a link to anything related to the City Sampler....a fabric pull, blocks started but not finished, completed blocks.  Hopefully this will interest those of you that started a sampler and then put it aside to take it out again and work on it.  Then on August 15th and each following month on the 15th I'll have a new linky party to show off what you've accomplished so we can motivate each other to keep going.  

To get this party started I'm going to show you my fabric pull now....perhaps to help you think outside the box for this project if you don't already have a plan.  While I love so many of the City Samplers that I've seen pictures of, I'm going in a totally different direction for my version.  These are the fabrics that I'm going to use.

Yes I'm going to make a Halloween version of Tula Pink's City Sampler.  I looked around and didn't see where anyone else has done this so it should look really great when it is done.  Plus I want a big Halloween quilt and this will kill 2 birds with one stone. I'm really excited to see how this is going to come together.

Here is my White, Yellow and Orange pile.  I desperately need to find more White and Yellow background prints to use for this.

Here are the Green and Purple bits I'll be using.  I definitely need more Green too to add to this stack and a few other Purple ones wouldn't hurt either.

These are the Black prints I will be incorporating into my blocks.

I just might also include some pieces from my Ghastlies stash if the mood strikes me.  When I said that I'm addicted to this line, I wasn't kidding.  For each block I'm just going to wing it and pick my fabrics based on my mood at that moment.

So who wants to join us?

You can make your blocks with any theme that strikes you fancy...Rainbow, completely scrappy, 1930s prints, Christmas prints, Civil War fabrics, Asian fabrics (that would personally be my other choice), modern fabrics, geometric prints.....it's totally up to you.

Sew when you can.  Show off whatever you've accomplished.

There are no quilt police with this. Maybe at some point we'll have a finish linky party to celebrate completed projects but that will be a bit off in the future depending on how everyone does.  

If you want to spend just a few minutes each day (or at least every few days if your life is busy like mine) sewing for fun, come be a City sampler cheerleader with us. Oh and there is a button over on my sidebar if you want to use it on your blog and spread the news.

Last chance

7 6 3 spots left!

Every day the packages of gorgeous charms are arriving and I can't wait to start sorting all of them into pretty piles to send back out to all of the participants. It's not to late to be one of those participants.

This is the final call for anyone who wants to join in on the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap.  Surprisingly, there are still a few spots available.  This swap includes all of her holiday lines including:

 

 

 

 

Kate's holiday designs are so modern and fun and will look great together in some fabulous projects for the upcoming season.  I already have a few projects planned for my stack of charms. The details are all in this post but I am extending the deadline to have your charms in the mail to August 15th to give the new people time to get their fabrics and get them sent out.

So sign yourself up today!  Sign your friends up today!  Don't miss out.

This week's progress and Stunning Stitching Sunday

I'm happy to report that I actually got to spend some time in my studio this past week. Boy did it feel great.

I only had a little time on Wednesday afternoon before I had to pick the kidlets up from camp so I added borders to the Disney Villains panel.  Now I need to decide how to quilt it.  Any suggestions?

Friday was productive too although I only got one smaller task done.  It had a lot of pieced. This is a sneak peak of the mini quilt I'm making for the Spooktacular Mini Swap 15 on Instagram.  The top is done and again I'm trying to decide how to quilt it.

Yesterday the munchkins made a fort in the playroom/library using the coffee table and my Castles on the Horizon quilt that I made for the Moda Bake Shop. (I so love the morning sun that streams through the front windows).

Someone else was enjoying the morning rays. Mr. Juno is completely at home now.

Of course right after I captured this picture, he got up and moved. I guess I was annoying him with all the camera clicking.

Today the fort morphed and got bigger. As you can see, Jammer used the rainbow strings quilt made for me by Karma Willow Designs and my Thistles and Vines quilt (which is the first quilt I made ever).

He said it has 3 sections now...one for Sunshine, one for him and one for storage.  Silly boy.

Oh and BTW Sunshine finally lost her first upper tooth. She likes putting a straw in the gap.

Of course you really want to see all the quilty goodness I've come across lately.

I hope you enjoy today's showcase and please remember to click through the links to each quilter's blog and show them how much you appreciate all that they share with the quilting world.

1. Quilting is My Bliss, 2. Confessions of a Fabric Addict, 3. Piece N Quilt, 4. Dreamworthy Quilts, 5. Quilting is My Bliss, 6. Piece N Quilt, 7. Tamarack Shack, 8. Treadlemusic, 9. Dreamworthy Quilts, 10. Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures, 11. Green Fairy Quilts, 12. Creative Longarm Quilting by Karen Marchetti, 13. Ms. Midge, 14. Happy Quilting, 15. Alicia Quilts, 16. Quilting is My Bliss

Last but not least, I'm going to make another plug for the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap. There are still a few spots available so if you've been waiting to join in the fun, stop waiting and join now.

The packages of charms have started to arrive and very soon this bin will be overflowing with quilty goodness.  Then the fun part of opening each stack and sorting through the gorgeous charms can commence.

Enjoy your Sunday.  Another work weeks starts all too soon.

Piggy Bank Challenge results

Last year I joined in on the Piggy Bank Challenge over at Val's Quilting Studio.

I'm a few days late reporting how I did but here it is.

My collection jar sat on the shelf in my studio right next to my bobbin winder and a few other goodies.

This is how it looks today, not even 1/4 full.  To be honest I didn't remember it much throughout the year, just when the change in my wallet got too heavy would I think to dump it all in the jar.

Here is what I managed to save.  After counting it up, it comes to a whopping $30.85.  Not great but not totally shabby either.

So what am I going to spend it on? Nothing.  All of the change went right back into the jar and the jar went back onto the shelf.

I'm going to keep adding to it until it is filled and then I'll spend it.  I'm going to try and remember to add to it more regularly but I'm not going to formally join the challenge this year.  Hopefully I'll be able to fill it in less than 3 or 4 years. :)

Only a few spots left

Have you been thinking about joining the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap?

Well don't think about it any more.  Join today.  

There are only 15 13 11 spots left.

Email me and claim yours.

All of the swap details can be found here.

I've been spending

I confess. I've been doing a little shopping lately but complete truth be told.....it is all for planned projects, not just new additions for my stash. The bonus tidbit about it is the fact that a lot of this was "free" because I sold a bunch of pantos and used that cash.  

First up are the Kate Spain Charm Swap cuts. Half of these are mine and half are my sister Tina's contributions to the swap. These are all from Kate's Solstice line.

There are still some spots open in the swap (surprisingly) so it's not too late to join in on the fun. All of the details can be found here.

I wasn't looking for this at all but when I saw it on a Facebook group I just had to buy it.  I have a friend who love the Disney Villains and this soon will be turned into a fun little quilt for her.

Halloween prints has been my shopping focus lately.  These are for a really fun upcoming project (that you just might want to make too).  Details to come soon.

In preparation for that project, I took all of my Halloween prints out of my stash dresser and put them in this tote.  As you can see, I really need more prints with White, Yellow and Green backgrounds.  This project will be a scrappy riot of Halloween colors and I don't want the Orange and Black prints to take over.

If you happen to come across some great sales on White, Green or Yellow background Halloween prints, please let me know.

This little kit I didn't spend any money on at all.  It was actually part of my birthday presents from my BFF. Yes I know that my birthday was in the fall but we hadn't seen each other since last summer.  This will get made into a wall hanging for hub's train room.

My other new purchase was a "just so happen" surprise.  You see, my scraps were all crammed into this 3 drawer bin along with the other items that you see...the best press, the extra fabric markers, the stabilizers, etc.  Finding anything in there was certainly a challenge but thanks to a recent purchase, this is how the 3 drawer bin looks now.

This is the reason for all that space for accessories above.  It is a 5 drawer bin on wheels that I snagged off of Craigslist for a whopping $10.  Now each bin only holds 1 or 2 colors instead of 5 or more.

On Saturday afternoon, once we were home and dry from marching in the rainy July 4th parade, I maneuvered this one next to my bookshelf and slipped the shorter one next to tit tucked right under my cutting table.  Much better!

Of course, that means I have plenty of space to store more scraps.  In fact the basket you see in the corner of the picture is almost full from the most recent projects so soon it will be time to sort them into the bins by color.  I made a great dent in cutting some colors into usable sizes over the winter but have stalled on that project recently.  Now that I can actually open the bins, I'll probably get back to doing that in the evenings when I'm not in the mood to sew.

Having great storage solutions is so important to maintaining a relatively neat studio because I can't create in the midst of chaos.

Stunning Stitchin Sunday

I hope everyone ha enjoyed their holiday weekend. Thankfully today's weather has been much improved over yesterday. Some quilters have been busy finishing up some gorgeous projects lately.

So after the last BBQ is done, the fireworks have been quieted for the night and you are relaxing, I hope you enjoy today's showcase of beautiful work.

1. Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works, 2. Quilting is My Bliss,

3. Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting Blog, 4. Piece N Quilt, 5. Geta's Quilting Studio,

6. The Quilting Edge, 7. Quilting is My Bliss, 8. Ahhh...Quilting,

9. Creative Longarm Quilting by Karen Marchetti, 10. The Quilting Professor,

11. made by Chrissie D, 12. Quilting is My Bliss, 13. Piece N Quilt,  14. Quilting is My Bliss,

15. Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works, 16. Sue Dario's Quilting Adventure

A new week is a starting and I hope that for you, it is a good one.

Some sewing but no quilting

This is the only sewing that I've been able to accomplish this week.

 This was in preparation for today's July 4th Parade.  Of course she earned another patch today for participating.

Here are the members of my troop that braved the wet weather.

They did great, walking the entire parade route without complaint (other than that they were hungry). 

Now we are home, warm and in dry clothes so now I get to go and sew.

That is my kind of holiday!

Enjoy your July 4th!

I'm surprised!

People must be away on vacations and haven't yet heard.  That is the only reason that I can think of why the Kate Spain Christmas Charm Swap still has some spots still available. I'm sure they would be heartbroken to learn later that they miss out on their chance.

Do you love Kate Spain fabrics like I do? Do you want to make a fun modern-ish Christmas quilt like I do?  Do you want it to be full of awesome fabrics and colors like I do?

 

Then you should join the charm swap.  All of the details can be found in my announcement post. Just email me all of your information and I'll add you to the list.

 

Feel free to share this across all social media platforms.  In fact, please do.  The more people that hear about this the better.  The faster the charm swap is filled, the sooner I'll receive all of the packages and the sooner all of your yummy charms are on their way back to you.  Thanks for your help in making this charm swap successful as the others have been.