New Hip

New hip is great and while cannot sew for a few weeks on machine there is that knitting going on.

Murmuration Started

The colors for this Rebecca Bryan quilt of diamonds of string piecing have been curated using her method of color fabric chips to get the gradation from darkest to lightest. All these are from my stash which was another goal I had to see my stash differently. It worked. Don't think I would have pulled these without the pattern and color guidance.

The first three center blocks that are from the darkest colors.

Six more diamonds an the color starts to show some light peaking through. I am anxious to get more diamonds done but alas....

I have lost use of my right hip for all practical purposes and am waiting to get the surgery date for hip replacement done.  Darn this slows me down but not out. I am in the process of getting my machine from my studio upstairs to the downstairs and soon will have a downstairs set up to get back on this. In the meantime I am working on a a Christmas Stocking for our new GreatGrand Dtr Riley Hope born Oct. 31.

Funny I bought this one in 2002 off a sale rack at Hobby Lobby for $5  the price was $17.99 so quite a bargain. Figured I would use it some day and now is that day.

Halloween Small Hanging

We were RVing last week and my Halloween small quilt hung proudly in our campsite. It makes me happy to see it wave in the breeze as our friends and us sip our happy hour

EEK!

Love this pillow I made a few years ago and love seeing it during this Halloween season.

Color Refinement

A little refinement of the deep dive into color. Added a couple to expand the middle colors. I know that until I actually make the next triangles I will have no clue as to how this might really pull together but I like the method of using solid color chips to pull prints from my stash that allowed me to see those prints differently. I like this new way to look at what is in front of me. bryanhousequilts.com

Deep Dive Center for Murmuration Quilt

Murmuration Quilt beginnings....Wanted to get the core done before leaving town.

Colors I am drawing from ...I think I need some mid tone so will work on that before pressing forward.
This is for the Playful Color on line course I am taking offered by Rebecca Bryan bryanhousequilts.com

Deep Dive into colors

Doing a deep dive to get colors for a quilt that goes from dark to light within a spectrum  I would like some more mediums but my stash just does not have any more so I am going with what I got...This is a use stash only project to challenge my color perspective without buying anything. Now to cut strips, I am going to use my newly acquired Accuquilt for some.Wonder if the red cutting board is tainting my "eye" of these colors..??

Great Grand Daughter Quilt

Riley Hope our second Great Grand Daughter will, we learned today, be born on Oct 31 if all goes as planned. Love the lamb and the fun it is having dancing with flowers. The back is minky with cute owls. Loved making this as baby quilts always are a joy and fast to do.

ABUNDANCE OF PEACHES

See there is this peach tree that came up on our property from we know now where. It has been growing and we have not paid much attention to it. Then this year it has produced lovely peaches. A lot of peaches it seems to us. We picked the first one and one bite told us this was a good peach tree. Now there is on our property others who also like these peaches, one in particular....

 That squirrel is a peach eater....seems he even smiles as he eats in front of us.  Well, a squirrel has to have fruit too I guess.

We are not being deprived by the squirrel and we are happy to share with our fuzzy tail friend.

Something from the Scrap Basket

 What do you do with 100 2.25" refrigerator magnets you salvaged from being thrown away because they were for a handout for a convention a few years ago and the organization is cleaning our old stuff?  YOU TAKE THEM FOR YOUR STASH.....

Now several years later when your guild is thinking of things to sell in their booth at a quilt show, hmmm you remember those magnets...

You start off with digging in your scrap baskets and find what left overs you have

 The more you dig the more you find and not even sure what it was left over from but it is nice

 The parts join together and the next thing you have is this

 A bit of trimming and then you have this. 

This is a finished square that is a quilt sandwich of left over stuff, craft felt and a backing/ quilted together and cut with pinking shears. the craft felt (fake batting) is nice because it hold so well and does not flake or shed.

The finished mini blocks are then hot glued onto the salvaged magnets ready for sale (if they are chosen for the booth) at our guild booth later this summer. 100 "free" items could give back dollars to be used by our guild.

Flamingo is Abound with Pink

 I dso enjoyed a wonderful weekend of sewing with my peeps in March and I started a fun Flamingo quilt. I think I know where this might end up but no matter it was a super fun quilt see come to life. 

 This was a free pattern done in 2.5" squares. It is a large quilt but the flamingo is spectacular and makes me smile. I love the material choice and remember when I found it. I found the pattern and one day as we were traveling went to a quilt shop is Boise, Idaho (Quilt Expressions) and saw the flamingo fabric and it screamed BUY ME...perfect. I bought the amount the pattern called for plus a yard. I am glad I bought the extra and since this purchase was 2 yrs ago I know I will never see this again anytime soon. I love Moda Grunge and the pick was just the right thing for the Flamingo with its shading of pink hews. I would make this pattern again if the occasion ever calls  for a great flamingo.

Getting the head together.

Fun top finish..well still need the eye appliqued on and to get it quilted.

Fun Flamingo Quilt

©2017 Flamingo Toes Designs - Pattern is for personal use only. Do not sell or distribute pattern. flamingotoes.com  
Fabric: Timeless Treasures FAbric of SOHO, LLC  Fun-C5473 

Round Robin Quilt June Reveal Party

Earlier in  2018 the group of wonderful women I quilt with decided to do a round robin quilt.We each did our center square and handed it off to the first person. There are 7 of us but we have taken several months off during the 2018 and this has stretched into 2019. We will in June 2019 have the reveal party with the finished quilt tops. I am very excited to see mine and have had so much fun working on the ones from all the fabulous friends.

This is the block I did for the center of my quilt. I loved the paper pieced heart and the rainbow colors of the flying geese. I thought the colors gav  a lot of options for those to add borders. I am excited for June to get here and being able to see all the finished quilts.

A in a MIni

This is a letter from the mini I will be trading with my partner at QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville, Tenn. next week. I am always excited about QuiltCon and this year is no exception. I love the energy and the creativity that surround and permeates the event. Oh then there are the vendors, like who does not love shopping for all the "stuff". I have a class on embroidery with a feather motif that I think will re hone some of my embroidery skills that I have not used in forever. Embroidery was one of the first needle art I learned from my Grandmother and Mother. I have done a lot including crewel when it was popular. Stitches on my needle have come in many forms and I guess I just love the hand and mind sync of the whole thing. Like reading, when I have stitches on my needle I am relaxed and in my happy place even when that needle is attached to a machine.
Anyway, this mini is a repeat of one I made a few years ago that I have always enjoyed, simple but always a reminder of why I do what I do with Stitches on my Needle...reveal later.
QuiltCon 2019 you are in my future...whoohoo.

GGD Abounds with Love

It is so great to have a little one in the family as the great grand dtr makes her mark into the mix. New Years Eve party she loved all the hoopla and with the other under age grands she liked the sparkling fruit drink.

Great Grand Mary and Great Grand Dtr enjoy a fun New Year

Then she was delighted with her stuffed farm animals and books she got at Christmas. It is nice to be able to sew simple things again knowing they will be hugged.

When it is time to dream....sweet dreams GGD

Mini for Quilt Con

Going to Quilt Con (Modern Quilting Convention) in Nashville in a few weeks and participating in the SWAP of a mini with my assigned partner. I love swaps and always enjoy the thrill of meeting the new person and just getting a mini to put on my wall. I love making a mini for several reasons like getting to finish a piece and not struggle with a lot of quilt under the needle when quilting it. Like using smaller pieces and enjoying the colors in a smaller piece. Like making up what it will look like and challenging myself to do my own thing. The piece is of course "secret" till exchanged but a sneak peek of one of the letters.....

1.5" paper pieced  and there are half square triangles too

Perfect UFO from UFO "steal exchange"

I participated in the exchange of UFOs in our Midcities Modern Quilt Guild and came home with a lot of blocks that were sown together in all sort of pieces. I "stole" them from someone in our exchange  because I saw a lot of blocks already finished that could make a great Lutheran World Relief Quilt for our quilt group at Calvary Lutheran and I was so right. After putting on the design board it turned out they fit together perfectly to produce the perfect 60x80 size for the LWR quilt.  I look forward to taking it next month and getting it "tied quilted" together and ready for the world somewhere and a person somewhere. It is serendipitous in a good way. Thank you whoever put these in the exchange.

NEW YEAR NEW WORD

New Year New Word

I have struggled with a word to bring into the New Year. HOW from last year was nice but how to pick this year's word has not come easy. I feel a bit like Little Red Riding Hood finding the porridge  *some words were too wimpy *some words were to strong *some words were too inactive and *some words I had no feeling about. Looking for the word that is just right so I can  nibble on it all year long brought me to a word I seldom use but maybe it is time to step in...so I have chosen  ABOUND. 

Abound (verb): to exist in abundance 

Like: I abound in love from so many and it makes me abound in gratitude for all I have.  

So off to a new year and a new word.  Best of 2019 to one and all