Fa la la la la....la la la la!!

Do you recognize this pattern? It's Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding, Fruitcake and 12-Days of Christmas! Moda is known for creating fabric from Basic Grey's scrapbooking paper. There are other fabrics in the store, but I only have so much money. LOL! This pattern is by Moda, and it is called "Figgy Pudding." It is from last year. I thought I'd get started on my Christmas Quilt, now, so it can be ready for the Holidays. This part is just 2/3 of Block No. 1, and already this measures 15" x 20". There are eight blocks with each measuring 15" x 36".

Scrap Happy!

I fell in love with this quilt pattern the minute I saw it in the May-June, 2009 issue of Fons & Porter's "Love of Quilting" magazine. The pattern is called "Seams of Opal." It's supposed to look like the vibrant and briliiant colors of an opal. I also call this "My Happy Quilt."

1,723 pieces of fabric went into making this queen-size quilt. Thank goodness my husband likes it. LOL! He probably wouldn't sleep under this quilt if he thought it was ugly (or too feminine).

I'm not sure if you can see it clearly. I tried to show the quilt design in this picture. I love red. It's my favorite color, and so I had to use red-binding on this quilt.

One of the new things I did with this quilt is to create a label that would be sewn into the quilt backing BEFORE the 'sandwich' was quilted together. I added strips of fabric from the same fabric used on the top of the quilt. I liked how it turned out. The embroidery was done by a friend of mine. I think it's very important to add a label to a quilt. It gives the recipient or owner of the quilt an idea of when the quilt was made, and the styles of fabrics which were available during that time. It makes the quilt a part of your personal history.

Thanks for stopping by, today!

Perserverance pays off!

I started this quilt on August 5, 2009. Now, one year later, it's all finished. Why did it take so long to complete? Well, it wasn't for lack of interest. See, I started this quilt to keep myself pre-occupied last summer while I was unemployed. This quilt (and my crayola quilt) was my saving grace. It made me feel productive, even though I was struggling to find a new job. We had just moved to Florida. The country was still struggling through a recession, and I was competing in a market that primarly focused on the hotel and restaurant industry. Yep. No Human Resources jobs available. I finally found a job in November, 2009 (so five months after we first arrived); and all of my quilting was put on the back-burner.
I love this quilt top. It was challenging, that is for sure. I love a good challenge, though. I also had been wanting to make a red-white-and-blue star sampler, so this was right up my alley. I love fabric, but I don't like to hoard it. Good quality quilting fabric is expensive (roughly $10 per yard), so really, I can't afford to hoard fabric. And, once I start a project, I have to finish it before I start a new one.
Now that this quilt top is complete, I will take it to my neighbor, Patty, to have it quilted on her long-arm machine. I will post the finished quilt once it's all finished! Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

I ended up cutting an sewing some 800 squares, each was 2" x 2". What a royal pain in the booty. but if I didn't finish what I started, this quilt top could have taken two years to complete.

Old cards, new magazine

I had not sent any new artwork to Somerset Publications since October, 2007. So, needless to say, it was a big surprise to get the 2010 Catch Up Issue by Stampers Sampler in yesterday's mail. I wonder what other cards they may still have that I've forgotten about?

1,723 pieces and a new card

That's exactly how many pieces of fabric went into this quilt top.
1,723. LOL! What was I thinking?
This is the very first project I've made using the foundation-paper-piecing technique. I wish I had discovered it sooner. How easy peasy? OK..... it was a tad tedious.
110 blocks. Each block measuring 5" square. Then, you've got the one-inch sashing between blocks, one-inch setting blocks, and ten-inch wide borders.
But it's finished, and now, I will take it to a friend who has a long-arm machine for quilting. When it's all done I will share the finished quilted product with you. Now.... ONTO THE NEXT QUILT!!

This is the second project I worked on today. It's been a year since I've made a card. I am very rusty, I'm afraid. The vintage image came from an older Stampin Up set. I stamped with Memento and colored with copics. I stippled some Tea-Dye Distress Ink over the image and edged with chalk ink. Added some primas, punched leaves and a border (Martha Stewart Punch), and pearl embellishments. I gave away a lot of my vintage embellishments, and these are all I have left. Thanks for stopping by, today!!