More than my goal!

At the beginning of the month I set a goal for a Lovely Year of Finishes to cut and sew the blocks together for this quilt. Well, I am stoked, as my boys would say that I finished the whole quilt. Cutting, sewing, pin basting, quilting, and binding all done this month. The quilt measures 42" x 54".

 I did echo quilting in the center rectangles and a swirly quilt design around the inner rectangles. You can see the quilting on the back much better. I washed and dried the quilt this morning. I decided to take a picture on the snow.

 I got this echo quilting foot with my new sewing machine. It is a little tricky to use. I think I might use a dab of nail polish to put a dot on the inner circles that are used  for the echo quilting. Those lines are hard to see.

So this is the pattern I used. It is by Stephanie of Loft Creations. You can get the pattern on her Craftsy page, here.

I am linking up my finish on Melissa's blog for this month's Lovely Finish 

and I am also linking up to Elizabeth's blog, Such a Sew and Sew.

 Remember my post about the Twister quilts I finished this month? My friend, Judy, who lives in Illinois let me borrow the templates. Well, she has a loom and she weaves rugs. I finally got her some measurements for some rugs I would like to put in my house. She made me three and they all look like this. Isn't it great? Now I am going to see if she will make one for my sewing room.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Hexies

I have been working on some hexies from some tutorials that Karen H. has on her blog. They will make some interesting patterns when I get them put together. Check out her blog, Faeries and Fibres if you want to give them a try.

I used my Sewline fabric pen to glue the fabric around the paper. I had to put a replacement in it. See the white thing? It was the container the glue stick came in. It has a lid too. After I put the glue in the holder I thought how could I use the white thing instead of throwing it away. Well, I think it would make a great needle/pin holder. 

 Yesterday we got our first snow. It snowed the tiniest snowflakes I ever remember seeing. It reminded me of a rainy drizzle. We got about an inch where we live.

 It won't last long. Tomorrow the temps will be above freezing. I am enjoying the white stuff!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Soupcon block

 Just finished the second step of my Soupcon block. Karen H. shared this pdf with these cool designs we could use for the second step. I couldn't just pick one so I used the two that I outlined in black. I used a Valdani variegated thread. I think using the two designs almost makes the block look like it could spin. Karen is sharing some different ways to make some really interesting hexagons. She has shared two designs so far which I am dying to make. Hopefully this week I can find some time.

While doing some machine sewing of binding I caught Mr. Cardinal on the feeder. Seeing him makes me smile.

Check out the door stop blog hop tomorrow. It might make you smile too.

  January 28th                                                                 
threads on my socks
 
How ART you?
 
Den syende himmel
 
Moosestash Quilting
 
life, quilts and a cat too


January 30th

Just Let Me Quilt
 
Quilted Delights
 
Meadowbrook
 
Hill Valley Quilter
 
Pampered Pettit
 
Life in the Scrapatch
 
Seams To Be Sew



With Passion,
Carrie P.

three and four finish

Talk about fun! I have been wanting to make one of these twister quilts for a long time. I have seen many around on blogs. Each one is so neat. Now the heart shape ones are being shown. One here and here. I want to make one of them and also a wreath shape. So when I visited my friend Judy this past October she let me borrow her two different templates. She doesn't have a blog but you can see some of her quilts here.

I had a bunch of  5 inch squares from an exchange I did last year, I think. Isn't it cute done in polka dots?

 I also had a charm pack of Rouenneries by French General that I used in this quilt.

 The polka dot quilt is done in a stipple design. I wanted to try something different so I did a search on the internet for some ideas on how to quilt Twister quilts. I found this idea from Piece N Quilt.

 I really liked doing these feathers much better than the stippling on the other little quilt.  I got these two quilting feet with my new machine. I used the top spring loaded one for the polka dot quilt. It seemed to bounce to much over the seams which messed up my quilting a little. The foot  below would not go over the seams but it worked beautifully for the feathers. If anyone has any tips on using these two different feet I would appreciate it. They are both different than what I am used to using with my old machine.

 Here is the front of top before you start cutting out the squares. It is so neat how something so simple can become something so complex looking when put together.

 Here is the back. I used all the leftover fabrics.

I am linking up these finishes to Elizabeth's blog, Such a Sew and Sew.

 I wanted to share this weeks memory verse from Jenny of Elefantz.

Starting tomorrow are two blog hops you might like to check out. I am part of the "Don't let the door stop you." My day is February 7.

 She Who Sews Blog Hop Schedule   January 27th  

Joy Studio

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Tea Time Creations

 Just Sew Quilter

I like to Quilt Blog

Shepody Mountain Crafter

Creatin' in the Sticks

Don't Let the DOOR STOP You
Blog Hop 
Schedule

January 28th
 
threads on my socks
 
How ART you?
 
Den syende himmel
 
Moosestash Quilting
 
life, quilts and a cat too


With Passion,

Carrie P.

Second Finish

My second finish is a simple finish. Our guild makes preemie quilts for our local hospital. The members have been challenged to make four this fiscal year. This is my first one. I found some die cut 5" flannel squares at our local Joanns with matching yardage. It will be a nice cuddly quilt for a little baby.
As you can see from the outside photo we did not get any snow. And in my excitement of anticipating snow I forgot to give credit to the "Snow Day" embroidery on the previous post. It is a design by Kathy Schmitz.

With Passion,
Carrie P.