A Finish and Cinco De Mayo????

Hello Everyone,

As promised, I finished quilting my Paisley Party quilt. I love it. I have also machine applied the binding so it is ready to be hand sewn to the back. I feel such satisfaction right now. You all know that feeling, right? Well here is the completed quilt...

I quilted it with a paisley design. Why not, it is definitely in keeping with the theme. I used a variegated rayon thread. The colors were all shades of yellows and oranges.  Love it! I think this quilt will be well used and loved.

With the scraps, I again used my AccuQuilt and cut up them into 3.5 inch squares and made this little table topper. I have since quilted this one with a paisley design, as well. It is really sweet!

One last eye candy picture. I have never done this before in my 9 years of business. I have a wonderful customer, her name is Susan. She sends me the most beautiful quilts to be quilted. She has been a customer of mine for a long time. Well, she e-mailed me one day and said she was shipping me a quilt that was "so me" and that I would love it. I have to say that ALL her quilts are "so me" and I love all of them. 

So what could this quilt possibly be..... hmmmm. I got the box and couldn't wait to open it. When I did, I had to wipe the drool off my chin and floor.  It was a beautiful Cinco De Mayo quilt. The funny thing is that I have Karen Stone's book and had full intentions of making this quilt. Well, after drooling over this quilt for days. I finally got up the nerve and called Susan and asked if I could buy it from her. 

She wasn't giving it to anyone and she said, YES! I was thrilled!!! So I bought this beautifully crafted quilt top from Susan. Now all I have to do is quilt it and it will hang in my foyer. It will replace the Easy Stash quilt that has been hanging for about 5 years. I can't wait. So once again Thank you, Susan, you are terrific and so is the quilt!!

Isn't it fabulous???!!!

Until Next Time,

A Finish and Cinco De Mayo????

It's a Paisley Party

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to share with you my latest creation. I used Terri Atkinsons latest fabric line called Paisley Party and the free pattern download from the Red Rooster website. This entire quilt was cut on my Accuquilt in just a little over a half an hour!!!!

The first pictures shows the nicely cut and stacked piles of squares and rectangles.

The four patches were originally 2.5 inch strips (cut on the AccuQuilt). I then strip pieced and subcut them to create the 4 patches. 

Here is half of the quilt already pieced. I have to say it was truly a dream to piece it because everything was cut exactly the same size. The quilt top lays perfectly flat. Now of course, I had to factor in my accuracy with my 1/4 inch seams. But I have to say, I try to be very consistent.

Here are two pictures that show just how exact the piecing was. I am in love with my AccuQuilt!

As a side note Em had e-mailed me and asked if the AccuQuilt does well with scraps. The answer is YES. The next post you will see the above quilt finished. It is on my quilting machine now. And you will also see another little quilt top that I created with the scraps!! It was fun!

Anyway, I am getting back into the swing of things for the new year with my customers and have been updating my gallery. Check it out!

I hope that you all are not as cold as last week. I know some of you are in warmer places and yes I am jealous. Send some warmth our way, please.

Until next time,

It's a Paisley Party

Pillowcase Parade

Hello Everyone,

This post is dedicated to all those people that I have received pillowcases from for our guild's charity, The Hole in The Wall Gang Camp. I know there are many more of you out there making them for the April Deadline and I have such gratitude for all of you. I am sure the children will too. I know they will love all the cases that were so lovingly made. I first posted about it here and Stephanie got the ball rolling by sending me 15 pillowcases! So onto the parade.

These came from Dayna... she sent 12! Thank you Dayna!

These were made from fabric donations from Jane and Caroline (my friend with no blog). Thank you ladies!

These were made by Caroline (no blog). Thank you Caroline!

These were sent by Cheri (no blog), Terri's mom. She sent 8!! Thanks Cheri!

These were sent by Amy. She sent 5! Thanks Amy!!

These were sent by Kathy. She sent 4! Thanks Kathy!

These were sent by Jane. She made 3! Thanks Jane!

These were sent by Terry (friend, no blog). She made 3! Thanks Terry!

If anyone is still interested in making pillowcases for this wonderful cause. I do have a FREE "no exposed" seams pillowcase pattern that I can forward to you. I have it in a PDF, but I am not sure how to get in on the blog. If anyone knows, please comment or e-mail me. Otherwise, if you would like the pattern send me an e-mail. I guess I still have a lot to learn about technology.

Until next time,

Pillowcase Parade

Big Announcement

Hello Everyone,

Here is what I have been waiting to tell all of you. I hope you were anxiously awaiting like I have been. As you all know, I am a professional long arm quilter, who also sells Gammills. But I really wanted to be able to service my wonderful customers in another way as well. In November, I purchased an AccuQuilt Studio Cutter. If you are not familiar with it, it is a die cutting machine that can cut up to 10 layers of fabric at one time. WOOHOO!!!!

But what make it so special is its accuracy and speed. You can cut a very large quilt in no time flat!! You might recall this quilt here. This was all cut on the AccuQuilt in about 1/2 hour. Anyway, I am now offering custom cutting services to all of my customers. Or if you choose you can cut the fabric yourself. More detailed information and pricing can be found on my newly updated Website here. Also, you can read about it in my January Newsletter. If you haven't already subscribed, so so while you are there.

You can download the PDF of all the die shapes that I have here. I will be adding new die shapes as time goes on. 

So for those of you who want a quilt cut or just your stash cut up into strips or charms, really quick, I'm your gal. Please e-mail me, comment, or call me for more info.

Now, this morning when I awoke at 5:30 the thermometer was in the negatives. When I brought my kids to school the temperature in the car read -8 degrees Farenheit.... Brrrrr....

So I though I would share some pictures I took about 2 weeks ago that depict how cold I feel. These were all taken around my house.

Also, I would love it if you would welcome my good friends Pam and Kathy to blogland. They both have relatively new blogs and would be happy with all you wonderful people stopping by to say hi!!

I hope you all have a joyous day and stay warm!! Until next time,

Big Announcement

Unveiling the Strata Quilt and Project Improv....

Hello Everyone,

WARNING, sunglasses may be need for this picture heavy bright post. As promised, I have pictures of my strata quilt on my design wall . I love it!! I hope you do too!

I have starting piecing the rows together and it is really looking great. That is a little bit of a slower process. I am very meticulous!

On to my next batch of pictures. I have joined in on Jacquie's Project Improv. You can find the button on my side bar. First I want to tell you that blue is so not my color, but I love these blocks. I had some batik scraps left over from a project and decided to use those. Now we were only supposed to make one block, but as you can see I got carried away and made four!!

Each has a different middle piece and they are all log cabinish wonky style. What do you think?

I took individual pictures of each block, notice the different centers.

Then a couple of pile pictures.

Then two layout pictures.

Now all I have to do is upload them to Jacquie's Flickr group, later today, and then send them to her. Thanks for sparking some creativeness, Jacquie.

Stay tuned for my announcement coming later this week. Until then,

Unveiling the Strata Quilt and Project Improv....

Stacks O' Happiness

Hello Everyone,

During my grand giveaway, I have been busy. I wanted to show you my progress on my strata quilt. I finished ALL the blocks and the quilt is on my design wall! Here are pictures of my beautiful blocks. I just love the colors and the blocks, they make my heart sing.

Here are the hot pink blocks. Jane you should love these.

Here are the half yellow, half hot pink blocks.

Here are the half purple, half pink blocks. Terri you should love these.

Here they all are stacked in one big pile of block goodness.

Here is my scrap pile. Not sure yet what I am going to do with them. Any ideas??

One last item. The day before Christmas these little beauties arrived in my mailbox from Eileen. What a wonderful surprise! They are such a hoot, LOL! They went right on my tree and I absolutely adored them. Thanks so much for thinking of me Eileen. You are great!

On my next post, I will show you my strata quilt on my design wall. Funny thing is when I put it up I was so happy and loved it, but not one member of my family liked it. I think they just can't handle happy colors. They are color deficient....

I hope you are all having a terrific weekend, until next time...

Stacks O' Happiness

Grand Giveaway Winners!!!

Hello Everyone,

First and foremost, I want to thank all of you who have come to visit me at my humble little blog, read my ramblings, and entering my drawing. I can't believe how many entered the drawing!! I have enjoyed visiting ALL your blogs. I did not personally answer comments on this post, a break from my norm, as there were just too many. But I want you to know that you are all greatly appreciated, thank you!

Now as I was posting this, I had already drawn the winners and I received another comment. I am so sorry to the last person commenting but the drawing had already been done and was closed.

On to the winners, this time I chose to do the random number generator, because it was fun. So here are the winning numbers and the winning people follow:

The winners, in order are:

#106 Bethany, you have won Prize # 1

#125 Anya, you have won Prize #2

#14 Valerie 2350, you have won Prize #3

Congratulations! I will be sending all of you an e-mail.

On another note, I have been trying to get things back to normal here. I have been busy quilting this week and will hope to have my latest newsletter out at the end of the week with a special announcement in it. So if you haven't subscribed yet to my newsletter you can do so here, so you won't miss out!

For those of you who like stitchery, check out the new quilt I just uploaded to my gallery, Karen's Winter Wonderland Quilt.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you again!

Grand Giveaway Winners!!!