Trick or Treat

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Enjoy all the scary and cute trick or treaters that come haunting tonight!

Tsunami

A tsunami has hit me sewing room, or Cosmo Cricket's new Salt Air line.  So I've been frantically sewing a few quilts to prepare for its debut at market this weekend.  Finishing up quilting on one quilt.

Sewing the remaining few blocks for another. 

Hurry, hurry, hurry Julie leaves Friday and these little pretties need to be ready.  Also be sure to check out the awesome mermaid Julie made on her blog out of this great fabric.

Oh What a Ride

Last Sunday DD, N and I loaded up the car and headed to Cali for some fun at Disney.  The rest of the family had work and school, a bit of a bummer.  We found our laughing place on Splash Mountain.

Had a jolly holiday on the Carousel.

Got a little loony in Toon Town.

And even had a little nightmare before Halloween.

We also spent a little time at the beach, one of my favorite places on earth. 

We had a wonderful time.  Now to catch up on every one's comments from last week and visit a few blogs to see what's new.

Soaring

N is finishing up his leadership hours required for his Eagle.  So I've been finishing up his Eagle quilt.  He decided he wanted a few more eagles on his quilt.  So we added a couple more.  Then I added borders.

Now I'm looking forward to putting to good use a few of the things I learned in my machine quilting class. 

I get by with a little help from my friends.

Recently I was given two large boxes of fabric.  In it I found these lovely brights and blacks.  Since this is a favorite color combo for me I knew something had to be done with them.  So I took them to a recent Happy Chemo Sew In where my friend Diane cut them into squares, Shari sewed them into blocks and I sent them with my friend Suzy to take to the next step.

Don't have have the greatest friends?

Made to Order

The order called for a nine patch of bright made fabric.  I chose pink

Add to another bright batik like fabric.  I chose this.

Next I sewed my pinks together into made fabric. 

Kept adding until I had enough for two blocks.

Cut both fabrics into squares and filled the order. 

Yummy!

Bee Happy

I just received my last block from my Notion or Two Bee.  Isn't it so cute.  Love this little house with the palm tree.  I'm invisioning it as my vacation home.  My home away from home.

After oooing and ahhhing over this cute block I set to work on making my block for this quilt.  I wanted something hanging on a clothes line.  While sketching clothes on a piece of scratch paper an idea came to me.... why not a little quilt.  I pulled out my drawer of half square triangles made back in the day before I learned this method of making the little guys. 

I grabbed a bunch of matching ones that were about 1" square.  I know I'm crazy.  I sewed them into a little quilt that I raw edge appliqued onto my background along with some posts for my clothes line.  Added my scrappy borders.

Added these two blocks to the rest of my little pretties. 

Now I just need to decide on borders.  Any suggestions?

My Oh My

My oh my I've been having fun in my sewing room making this months bee blocks.  Lauren is doing an ABC quilt and asked me to do the letters M and Y.  Which worked out perfect for my post title and they were fun to make to boot.

In my Anything Goes Bee Kandra asked for a blue,green and grey block.  This is what I came up with.  Can't wait to see what her quilt looks like.  Lovin' this color combination.

Valerie sent instructions for this great block.  I see more of these in my future.  So ideal for a great scrap quilt.

Jenniffer gave instructions for this sweet little block.  I'm looking forward to seeing the pattern it creates when they are all put together.

And finally a little siggy block that I still need to sign.

In Case You Are Wondering

 I've been doing a little rearranging on my blog.  I've made a separate page for all my tutorials.  I wanted to be able to include pictures of what each tutorial included.  The tab for the tutorial page is just above the title for this post.  If you click on it you will find tutorials for quick and easy quilting templates

Perfect fitting bindings,

A check book cover,

A charming quilt,

a quick and easy method for 1/2 square triangles,

and many more.

Let me know what you think of the change.  Is it too hard to find?  I'd really appreciate your feedback.

Leaders Enders Step one

As promised here is the first step in the Free Four All leaders and enders quilt.  First off for a 56"x 64" quilt like the one here, you will need 448- 1 1/2" squares in your chain fabric (I'm using black) and 448- 1 1/2" squares from assorted scraps.

Sew a chain fabric to one of your scrappy fabrics to make a little two patch.  Press your seams all toward the chain fabric or the scrappy fabric depending on which is darker.  But you do want to press all of them the same way so they will but up against each other nicely in the next step.

Next sew your two patches into four patches as shown. 

You should have 224 of these little beauties when you are done.  If you want to adjust the size of your quilt note that each square finishes at 8" and there are 8- 1 1/2" chain squares and 8- 1 1/2" scrappy squares in each block.

Since this is a leaders and enders quilt and you will be sewing other wonderful projects while you make this one I'm giving you a little time to finish this step.  I'll post the next step on the first Friday in November. 

 Keep me updated on your progress. 

 Have fun!

And the winner is...

After polling friends and family the winning arrangement of my leaders and enders quilt is the diamonds. 

The blocks are now all sewn together.  It's been quilted with simple x's.  And the binding is on.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  There are so many options for this simple block I think I might start another as my next leaders and enders project.  I might do the next one with black as the chain and brights everywhere else. Would anyone like to join me?  I think it might be fun as a sew a long.  At the end we can all share how we put the blocks together.  There are so many other ways that the ones I showed here.  Well what do you say are you up for a little sew along?  If there's interest I'll start instructions Friday.

More Quilty Hugs

Have you noticed the quiltometer has been on the rise.  It's a wonderful thing!  And I wanted to share a few of the lovelies that are responsible for that rise.  Look at the sweet nine patch made by my friend, Vivan.  Vivan is amazing every month at guild meeting she has at least one new quilt for this great cause.

These next two were donated at the Utah Quilt Guild's annual Quilt fest.  I don't know who made them as they appeared on my table unannounced.  This cute yellow, green and purple quilt is so happy.  It is sure to brighten some one's day.  I love they way leaves were appliqued out of the center fabric into some of the borders.

And this stunning turquoise and brown quilt is just fabulous.  Isn't that border amazing?

Thank you everyone who has made a quilt for Happy Chemo.  I know you are helping to ease the pain of cancer and bring comfort as well.