Jersey Rose . . .

Will you, too, be spending Super Bowl Sunday quilting?  If so, you might want to make a bouquet of roses, like I made for my Jersey Rose quilt . . . which I'll spend Super Bowl Sunday quilting!

I've prepared a tutorial for those of you who wanted it, and it will post at midnight tonight, Pacific standard time.  If you want to duplicate my idea using the Schnibbles Jersey Girl quilt pattern as a base, you'll be happy to hear designer Carrie Nelson understands the idea of immediate gratification--or nearly so--by offering a PDF of the pattern for purchase and email delivery.  When I've purchased from her, the pattern is normally in my email folder by the next day at the latest.  You can find her Schnibbles patterns HERE (just make sure you order the PDF versions of her quilts for email delivery).

Well, Here She Is . . .

That project I've been working on the last week or two and haven't told you much about.  I'm calling her Jersey Rose.

This began with a Schnibbles pattern--in fact, it's the January selection for the AYOS (Another Year of Schnibbles) group over at the Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life blogs--called Jersey Girl.  The background I used is a very light yellow--I didn't really like the way a white or cream looked for some reason, so I went with the pale yellow.  All of the green "leaf" fabric and all of the fabric for the roses were from my scrap bins.

Here's what the blocks looked like before the roses were added--this is pretty much what the pattern was, although these blocks don't have the sashing or border strips:

And here's a single block:

I'm really looking forward to the Schnibbles parade to see what other quilters have done with this quilt pattern.  JoAnne of The Patriotic Quilter blog made hers into fall leaves and you can see it HERE.

I've learned that this month's Schnibbles parade is postponed until Monday, though, so I have the weekend to try to get it quilted and show a finished project.  I'll let you know if I'm successful!  In the meantime, I'm posting Mister Linky for Scrap Basket Sunday so if my scrappy quilt has inspired you in any way, you can sign up when you're ready to show us what you made!


By the way, do you want to know how to make the roses? If I have time this weekend, I'll make another rose and take some photos along the way--unfortunately I didn't do that while I was making this quilt. Happy stitching!

No News is . . . Just No News

Hi all!  You may have noticed I haven't posted anything for a couple of days.  Why?  Well, I've just been working on a Schnibbles quilt project and I haven't had much to show or write about just yet.

I did do something non-quilty last night that was totally awesome though.  I'm a Dr. Who fan and I was watching a three-episode "marathon" while I was sewing.  I still needed to ride my exercise bike, but that meant missing one of the three episodes, staying up super late, or skipping the exercise.  What to do?  Well, I remembered that as an Amazon Prime member, I have access to TV shows and movies on my Kindle, so I checked and sure enough--I could watch the same show on my Kindle while riding my bike.  And better still?  I had purchased some ear buds a couple months ago, so I tried those out while watching Dr. Who, and it was an excellent experience!  It was like being in a surround sound theater or entertainment room, and even viewing on the small screen wasn't a problem at all.  Boy did my 40 minutes on the exercise bike fly by!  Soon the show was over and I'd put in OVER 40 minutes.

I was looking forward to similar experience tonight, but my knee hurt at CrossFit and then my shoulder and hand hurt at bowling, and by the time I got home, I'd sworn off exercise for the rest of my life.  Or at least tonight.  So I sewed a little, took a bath, and thought I'd check in with you.

At work, we're gearing up for a trial, and I anticipate some overtime work will be coming along soon.  That means I'll probably be a little sporadic in my blog posting again, but I'll try to keep up with posting at least a couple times a week, and definitely for Scrap Basket Sunday.  I haven't started quilting my Pie in the Sky quilt yet, but that's next on my "to do" list after I finish my current project.  How about you?  What are you working on?

Thanks for stopping by to chat!  "See" you again soon!

What Happened?!

Saturday night I wrote a post that included sign ups for Scrap Basket Sunday, and when I went to write tonight's post, I realized it never posted.  I'd "scheduled" it to post a few hours after I wrote it and never checked back.  ARGH!  So I've manually posted it now and you'll find it below this one.

Since I wrote yesterday's post, I pin basted the Pie in the Sky quilt top--

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you'll know this was made with scraps from my scrap bin over the course of the last many months.  Now I'm ready to start quilting it!  How about you?  Did you play with scraps?  If so, please link up below.  Thanks for your patience!

Scrap Basket Sunday and a Flash Back

I think my Scrap Basket Sunday project will have to be pin basting the Pie in the Sky quilt top.  Since I'm writing this on Saturday night, though, it's just a plan that I haven't done yet--I'll probably post a photo tomorrow.  How about you?  Are you working on a scrappy project to share?  If you are, I'd love it if you'd post a link to your blog and show us what you've been doing.  But before I give you Mister Linky, I thought I'd remind you about a Valentine project I published on my blog three years ago--the Heart Struck Runner.  Do you remember this?

I wrote the directions HERE. I can also send you a PDF file if you email me to request it.  But, of course, you don't HAVE to make the whole runner--you can just make a heart block and turn it into a mug rug.  Or four heart blocks for a small wallhanging.  And you know what?  It's a great pattern for some scrappy reds, pinks, and creams.  So if you didn't have a scrappy project in mind before, maybe now you do!

So, are you ready to make something scrappy and link up?  Here's Mister Linky:

One Down, Twelve to Go . . .

I completed the first block of the Globetrotting BOM by Pat Sloan.  This is the central block of the quilt and it's a very large 26 inches!  I have a vague notion that I'd like to made this quilt using red, white, and blue . . . and maybe some golden colored fabrics.  But we'll see how it develops.  I'm going to keep this somewhat scrappy because I certainly have A LOT of these colors in my stash that I can use and it should still look fairly cohesive.  I think.  That's the difficulty--and fun--of making a mystery quilt, though.  You don't quite know where it's going until it's gotten there.  Kind of like globetrotting!

This central block represents Washington, DC, and each of the next 12 blocks will represent a famous city, so I anticipate London, Paris, Rome . . . maybe New York?  San Francisco?  Several more cities, anyway.  This should be fun.

Pat Sloan has a Facebook page where everyone has been posting their blocks, and the color combinations are terrific!  Click HERE and scroll around to see some of them.  Are you participating in this BOM?  Have you made your block yet?

Never Enough Time . . .

Did I tell you I had started bowling?  Yes, I think I did!  So Wednesday night I bowled for the second time on this league we've joined, and I had a great time!  Everyone is very friendly, and one of the other nice perks?  The bowling alley has some good beer on tap.  Because beer and bowling just go together, right?  I don't usually drink much . . . like hardly at all . . . but sometimes a quality beer is a nice treat.

Back in the day when Hubby and I were about half the age we are now, we bowled in a league, and my average was usually somewhere between 135 and 145.  I've lost some of whatever I knew then, or perhaps it's because I was younger then, but now I'm holding pretty steady at right around 120.  In fact, my three game scores last night were 120, 121, and 120.  Consistent.  Even after a beer!

When I haven't been busy bowling and drinking beer, I've done a little scrappy sewing.  See?

I was struck by an idea a few weeks ago about something I wanted to do with a Schnibbles pattern and some scrappy green and white fabric.  So I've had a pile of green fabric scraps sitting out on a counter in the Sweat Shop ever since, and I finally started stitching up half square triangles the other day.  There's not much more to show just yet, but I hope to amaze and delight you soon.  Or it will turn out to be an utter and complete failure--only time will tell.

I was talking with a friend the other day about all of the projects I have in the works or that I want to make and have gathered fabric for, and I realize I'm probably crazy because there's just not enough time to get everything done that I want to do.  Ah, well, all we can do is try to enjoy the process and try to NOT stress when we aren't able to get more done.  I guess if I wanted a FAST hobby, I should have picked drag racing.

Did You Know Already?

For those of you who are fans of the Outlander series (by Diana Gabaldon) . . . and really, who isn't?! . . . well, did you know that Starz is filming a mini series to air sometime this summer?

Claire and Jamie.  Yep, it's true.  There's a Facebook page and everything.

Have you read Outlander?  How many times?

You haven't read it?  I kind of envy you . . . how excellent would it be to look forward to reading one of the best and most romantic books of all time . . . for the FIRST time?!  If you haven't read it, you really must.  If you've read it and want to refresh your memory, please do!  And if you want a link to the book on Amazon in its many forms, including Kindle, click HERE.

More Scrappy Than You Know . . . .

Yesterday I showed you what I'd done with the leftover scraps from the Quilt Doodle snowman row but I didn't tell you about the other scrappy projects I worked on over the weekend.  I was very anxious to finish up the Pie in the Sky quilt top--all I had left to do was to add a couple rows of 2" squares to the sides of the quilt, so I took time away from the snowmen to do that.

And when I stripped the bed to wash the bedding on Sunday, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try the quilt top on for size!

I don't prewash my fabrics, so I know this will shrink about 3" or so when I've quilted it and thrown it into the washer and dryer, but I think it should still be big enough.  I really, REALLY don't want to cut more squares and add additional rows.  And I didn't think a solid border was really right for this quilt although it would have been so much easier and quicker to add one, right?  But then there was the question:  what color?  Yikes!  The mind boggles.  But I actually AM considering adding just a final 2" row of black fabric all around--or white, I suppose.  Just to be on the safe side in case of shrinkage and to set off and put a visual "stop" to the rest of the blocks and colors.

By the way, speaking of color, I think I'm going to call this quilt "Another Hundred" or something like that.  The idea for the name comes from quilter Freddy Moran who, when talking about her color ideas, said "10 colors won't work, but 100 do."  I think that's really true of this quilt--there are so many colors in these blocks and not all of the colors play well together on their own, but all together, they look great, don't they?!


Hmmm.  Now what?  I guess I'll have to start thinking about the next Scrap Basket Sunday project soon.  I ordered some wide quilt backing from an online shop the other day, so if it's here by next Sunday, I'll use my "scrappy sewing time" to sandwich this quilt.  I'm thinking about all-over meandering type quilting for this one but I'm open to suggestions.  If you quilt your own quilts, what would you do with this one?

Leftovers

Remember I talked about how I made half square triangles from the "waste" corners I cut off the snowman heads/snowball blocks?  I mentioned that I'd used those half square triangles in another project I was working on this weekend, and now that I've finished it, I can show you what I was doing.  Ta-da!

I know--most of the time when we get scrappy little leftover pieces, we put them away.  Rarely do we immediately build a whole project around them.  And I'm no different, of course, but this time the idea of a line of snowman heads tickled my imagination, and I didn't want to wait to complete the larger mystery block of the month project.  So I used the half square triangles and some other scrappy leftovers from the original row project to make more snowman heads and then I turned them into a snowman runner with the addition of a little more fabric from my stash.

I'm always looking for decorating ideas to span the time between Christmas and spring, so combining snowmen and hearts into a runner seemed like the perfect idea. For those of you who like playing with scraps, I hope my little idea sparks your imagination for using leftovers.  Sometimes trying to use up the bits and pieces that are left at the end of a project brings out our creativity and leads to some fun results!