Let's Book It and other things

Good morning from the east coast , a sunny but chilly day here today but it seems to be warming up some now .
I can't believe we are at the end of March already , it has to have been the best March I can remember for weather , over all the winter was pretty mild compared to last year .  Our snow is gone again which is nice so things are looking up .
Today I am sharing my project for the Lets Book it with Sharon of Vrooman Quilts , I am working on a Christmas quilt simply called Merry Christmas and I managed to get a few small blocks completed this month .

                Some appliqued birds which I did by hand this time along with the embroidery .

                        Three small star blocks and the strip which will be a filler between blocks

                  And this block which I changed  for a block that is similar but not quite ;-)  I am pleased with my progress and I am loving this quilt so far .

I have been keeping up with the Splendid Sampler blocks ,I will share the latest blocks so of which are bonus blocks . I am enjoying doing these as well , tiny but fun to make .

Also each Monday I am taking part in a SAL with Darlene of a Needle Pulling Thread Quilt shop , these cute blocks are also 6" and I love them .

I had won a FQ bundle from Connecting Threads a year or so ago and I decided they would be perfect for these little stars . The fabric is called Line Dried , kind of remind me of my grandmothers aprons years ago .

I won't keep you today as I have so many things on the go and I must try to catch up so I don't become overwhelmed . I will leave you with this picture I took during our last little snow system .

Isn't he just gorgeous , another Purple Finch , puffed up nicely in the snow , makes my heart smile .
Thanks for stopping by today it is always a pleasure to see you .
 hugs Sheila

One UFO bites the dust

Doesn't it feel wonderful when you can mark off a UFO from your list , I know it makes me feel extra happy and pleased with myself  . I believe it is close to two years since I took a workshop at our guild to use a panel to make an attic windows wall hanging . I had this fall panel that my friend Marg had gifted me and I had wanted to use it for something special so this was my big chance . You would think I would get it finished before now but I have a terrible habit of starting new things , I know none of you are guilty of that right ;-) So without further ado here is my completed project .

I really love how this has turned out , it was a great way to showcase a panel and will make a nice statement on my wall come fall although I am in no hurry for that to arrive , lets enjoy some spring weather first or at least get winter over with . 

I also have a hard time throwing the triangles out when making HSTs so I sewed them into pinwheels and made this little mini quilt then I hand quilted it which I enjoyed . 

I am busy as a bee with way too many projects , I will share my progress on those another time , for now it is back to my cutting station ,I am going to cut some fabrics to make blocks to practice FM quilting . I bought a Craftsy class on that subject and want to follow along with the class lessons so might as well do it right and actually learn something . What are you all doing to celebrate International Quilting Day? I hope it is something creative .

 Thanks for stopping by it is always a pleasure to see you .

 hugs Sheila

Craftsy BOM for March

I can't believe we are already into the tenth of March , where does the time go ?? I have been taking part in the Craftsy BOM for 2016 and am enjoying the process but I won't lie , it is a ton of work . Lots of cutting and sewing in this months segment but it went together fairly well and I am pleased .

 Our guild did a charm square exchange last month and I decided it was best to get busy straight away and make them into something for spring . I had 56 squares to work with , some were multiples so I did my best to use at least one of each fabric in my little pile . I chose to make an adaptation of a table topper I seen in an older Fons and Porter magazine , the Easy Quilts of april 2010 . The pattern is called Spring Flowers designed by Paula Stoddard , seemed appropriate and it required 64 squares at 3" each so I changed that to 2.5" squares so I would have plenty of squares to make my topper work . The flower applique had to be adjusted some as well but overall it turned out as well as I hoped it would and is very springy :-) 

The colours are a little deeper than this photo shows , it is dull dreary day here today . 

I have lots of things in the works right now , the Splendid Sampler is keeping me busy as well as the weekly stars I am doing with Darlene of a Needle Pulling Thread quilt shop , I will share those at another time , right now it is time to make my way back to the machine . I hope you have a fabulous day and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by , it is always a pleasure to see you .

 hugs Sheila 

Lets Book It and a flimsy

Good morning everyone , the sun is trying very hard to shine today and it is very mild , feels like spring , dare I say I think we are going to have an early spring , don't want to jinx it .
 First off I will share my Lets Book it project , I managed to do one block in the quilt this month and prepare a second one so I am happy with that .

                        Thanks to Sharon for hosting this event each month to keep us on track :-)
 If you remember from an earlier post I was making a quilt for my granddaughter Sophia , well I have completed the top and had to work some magic to make the border fabric fit . First I will show the quilt then explain what I mean .

Do you see the name at the bottom , well that was not planned , no I simply ran out of fabric even though I was sure I had bought enough . So I did try to get more fabric but wasn't able to do that so had to come up with a plan as I had already sewn the other three borders on , I was so sure they would find the same fabric . So my solution was to delve into the world of free form letters , I had never done this before so had no clue what I was doing but figured it was worth the try and I might just learn something while I am at it . What did I learn , I learned this is fun , yep , it really is fun once you get the knack of it , the first two letters were the worst as I wasn't sure how large I should cut the pieces but they worked out pretty good for a novice and I quite like the look .I still had to make up space so two more pinwheels were sewn and a spacer of the same blue as in the letters and a perfect fit was born . I now have to get this quilted . I really don't think I am up to machine quilting this right now and I kind of need it yesterday :-)

I think I will leave you with a photo of my favorite little feathered friend who frequents our feeders . This photo was taken after our last snowfall , we actually have no snow at all now , we had torrents of rain and high winds that took it all away , yeah!!

See him in the center here , a purple finch , I know it seems strange to call it purple as it is quite red  and the description of this bird says it looks as if it has been dipped in raspberry juice and I couldn't agree more . So pretty , but so are its friends here the Gold Finch , in summer they have their beautiful golden colours but in winter are quite bland .
 Thanks for stopping by today and hope you have a creative day .
 hugs Sheila

Eunice and the Splendid Sampler

The winds are howling here and the rain is coming but heck the temperatures are at least 30 degrees warmer than yesterday so no complaints .
Have you joined in the Splendid Sampler with Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson ? If not you are missing out on a lot of fun , there are now over 13,000 quilters worldwide taking part , how awesome is that . The blocks are just 6.5" and they will be providing us with two blocks per week , one on Sundays and one on Thursdays for a year and a total of 100 blocks , what is stopping you . There are over 80 designers who are participating and providing blocks as well as bonus projects . The first bonus project was given to us by Jane and it is awesome to say the least . A combination of a mini design board and an ironing station if we wish to use it for that purpose , it also has a pocket for the 6" ruler we will need for this project . Want to see mine ?

 Here it is all closed up and you can see the pocket is on the outside for the ruler  plus a tie made from the ribbon that was wrapped around a FQ bundle . Now for the inside .

On the right is a bonus block from Pat and on the left is the first block in this Sampler , designed by Pat  and called Hearts a Flutter . There are three layers of batting in the folder providing a great ironing surface on the right  and of course the batting on the left is perfect when laying out the pieces for the blocks . 

I have so many projects on the go , sometimes it is hard to keep my head on straight  but since I have been doing a lot of sitting , hand projects are very welcome and I just had to join in with Darlene of the Needle Pulling Thread Shop , She is providing a wooly BOM called Eunice and I love wool so it was a no brainer .

A cute little project but apparently my sheep looks more like a tree lol . I used a grey sweater that I felted for this purpose , I just liked the texture and I also didn't have any white wool ;-)  I cheated on the wood pile , couldn't see me cutting those tiny circles so I cut it out in one piece and stitched around to suggest logs ,I think it worked well enough . 

Oh I also have an update on my Craftsy BOM , I have this months segment completed , thankfully , it was a fair amount of work so I had to spread that out over a couple of weeks . I must say I have really learned to be organized and use the leader and ender system to accomplish these blocks , it saves me time , energy and works so well . Just stack them up and pick them up and start stitching , so easy and so fun .

Now although those stars are lined up next to the middle section of the quilt that is not where they will end up , this month we were to make eight stars and the dogtooth border as well as add that green border but the stars will be set aside until later on . I am loving this so far even though it is very much out of my normal colour range except for the red which I love !! I had chosen  colours from the fabric I bought for the border which is a large floral and has these colours in it . Wonder how my sister is making out , must check and see how she is doing .

Well folks that is it for me today , thanks so much for stopping by , hope the weather is being kind to you where ever you are . 

Hugs Sheila