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 

A finish and some things need to percolate :-)

Good afternoon all , it is sunny and very cold here today and we are waiting for yet another storm to come to our area tomorrow , seems it happens on the weekends this year .
 First off I want to share a finish , it has been a while since I have had any . This quilt I am about to share is also in my header but it is on the frames at the church being quilted , well during my absence they finished my quilt and I have since finished sewing down the binding which thankfully I had sewn on before taking it out to be quilted .

My pinwheel quilt , a collection of blocks from an exchange with the girls I quilt with on Tuesdays plus I added the center block which is actually meant to be a wall hanging but these little colourful pinwheels reminded me so much of whirligigs that I decided to do a garden theme . The pattern name is Market Angel incase you are interested by Nellie Holmes. Here is a close up of the center .

I just love the cross hatching they did in this block , really makes it pop !! Thanks girls for all your great work , I couldn't be happier with it .
 Now for the second part of my title , percolate , yes somethings need to percolate before being worked on again . This project was offered by Melody of the House on the Side of the Hill a few years back ,more than I want to admit :-0  The strange thing is I had almost finished it when it was set aside  , all the applique pieces had been ironed on and most had been stitched down . So I am sure you want to see just what I am talking about .

It is really quite large and I think so pretty , I can't imagine why it has taken me so long to dig it out . I just have two letters left to applique and I need to add some details to the snowman plus I'd like to add a few flowers here and there . Thanks to Melody for this amazing pattern ,I can't wait to finish it now and since it is on my UFO list at the guild I do have an extra push to complete it ;-0

 One last thing before I go , You know I love the birds , well last week I had the most amazing view of a hawk , I love these birds and don't often see them perched in a tree so I grabbed my camera and zoomed in as much as possible and this is what I got .

The crows were really bothering him so he eventually took flight but I couldn't capture that . I will also share this photo that my granddaughter Nila took on the weekend when they were here for a sleep over . Nila and Elise both are into nature and part of the 4H group in their area so they both took turns with my camera trying to capture the little birds at our feeder .

This is a pine sisken , a very tiny little bird who loves the sunflower seeds as well as nyger seeds , See the little yellow band on the wings , that is so pretty when they fly . I think she did a wonderful job on this photo I didn't even crop it .

 So I am off now and I thank you for stopping by this afternoon , enjoy your day doing something creative and fun , it will make your soul very happy .
 hugs Sheila