Grandmother's Choice BOW Week #5

The block for this week is called New Jersey and Barbara's post and pattern can be found here.

This is how mine look together so far...

 two more blocks to go before row 1 is done!!

And this is the 8 1/2" Creative Grids ruler I purchased the day I bought sashing fabric, since I'm squaring up 49 blocks, I thought this was a good buy, lol!

Pear Butter Saturday :)

Have a look at these beauties!!  

Didn't think I'd make any of these this year with our harvest so poor with the drought.  

But then comes along good friends and I am gifted a large box of pears...what's a girl to do?  

Make Pear Butter, of course...I suppose you might call it a chunky Pear Jam with nutmeg and cinnamon...yum.  

My son is currently in Pear Butter Paradise right now after I slathered some of it warm on some toast for him...perhaps I need to do that too!  Thanks Cheryl :)

October is my month for Sew.Bee.Create!!!

I am so excited that October is my month for the bee I joined this year, Sew.Bee.Create..

Don't get me wrong, it has been a joy to get little surprise kits in the mail each month full of wonderful quilty fabric and a pattern to make something fabulous to send to one of my new bee friends...

But, squeeee!  Now it's my turn!!  I chose to ask for a block using the pattern Octagonal Orb by Elizabeth Hartman.  The tutorial can be found here.

Due to the fact that there are so many pieces in this block I precut all the pieces and sent a few extra for variety in each of the kits I sent out.

I used a freezer paper template to make cutting the wedges easy and quick...

 Locate template...

 Iron down and cut...

But be sure to look at the tutorial as Elizabeth gives excellent instructions and makes the block very straight forward to make.

They will all have the grey and orange scrappy look as my example block shows but the fabrics differ as much as my stash allowed.  One thing is the same in each though...a small piece of Heather Ross Nursery Versery Incy Wincy Spider fabric...

I asked my son to name him and am going to title the quilt..."Where's Curtis" (I know, but that was the name he threw out, lol!!)...since everyone will determine where to put the little guy, it will be an I Spy of sorts...

Thank you Sew.Bee.Create ladies!!!  You all rock!!

Oh, and I still get to sew for two more of them for November and December...can't wait to see what they come up with, we've had such a good variety of improv to traditional piecing so far!!

Now...go figure, I absolutely detest spiders but am in love with Curtis, there...he's even waving to me in the selvedge...

I guess this means I've thrown in and become a Heather Ross Fangirl, lol!

I can't wait to start getting blocks back to plan what will be a beautiful quilt made with friends!

Oh, and if any of you all need your own Nursery Versery, I found mine here...

Sashing and Cornerstones, Oh My!

I went shopping at the end of last week to come up with the sashing and cornerstone fabric for my Grandmother's Choice BOW Sampler...I figured that if I start sashing as I go there is less chance the blocks will end up languishing in a pile the way my Civil War ones have!

I chose a gold for the sashing and a purple for the cornerstones.  They are from The Cocheco Mills Collection by Judie Rothermel (gold) and Civil War Album 1862 by Pam Weeks (purple).

Barbara took all the guesswork out of the calculations for yardage and cuts in this post if you want to use the same setting...

Grandmother's Choice Week 4

I want to keep up with Grandmother's Choice BOW this year so when she posted this block, I knew I needed a substitution to keep on schedule.  Which is why I decided to use the block pattern above which I found in EQ6 also called Sunflower. 

It also finishes at 8 inches and to me looks wonderful with the other blocks so far...hopefully I won't get kicked out of the club!  I also shopped for sashing fabric this week and am auditioning which choices to use now.

And maybe I'll make the posted block...someday...

Dotty Winner

Congrats to #26 which is the number Mr. Random came up with...

DebbySeptember 17, 2012 5:19 AM

Ladybugs and frogs - a real cuteness combo! Thanks for sharing your creativity. Debby

Debby, I will email you on your win!

Oh, my...just looked her up...that's Debby Kratovil, quilting royalty :)  Thanks for stopping by Debby!

And thank you to all who entered the giveaway, it is now closed but you can still check out my post here

And, I was wrong on this being the last day of the hop, tomorrow was added and the schedule is here:

September 21st 
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb 

Cate's Linens

From This to That

suemacseeds

Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting

Ellie Quilter
 Rosemary B- that other blog

Bquiltin Studio

Nati's little things 
Madame Samm

So enjoy this last day, I know I will!!

Grandmother's Choice BOW Block #3 Done!

So we are on week 3 already and this is the Union Square block.  I am still pretty happy with the color range I have chosen but I probably need a few more purple and gold prints so that I have options for some fussy cuts.  The pattern for this block and the others can be found on Barbara Brackman's new blog here.  The blocks finish at 8 inches and I am using gold and dark purple as Barbara has indicated those would reflect the coloring of signage and promotional materials for the American Women's Right to Vote movement.
This block was quick to assemble and she once again gave us a wonderful history lesson along with the pattern.


If you are looking for my Dots on Dots post you can find it here.

Dots on Dots Blog Hop - My Day is Here!

 Thanks for joining me today for my contribution to Corrie's (from Quilt Taffy) and Mdm Samm's Dots on Dots Blog Hop.   A big thanks to them as well for all the work to prepare for such a fun blog event for us all!!

I struggled a bit to decide what to do for this hop but settled on a kid's quilt, possibly for Project Linus. I did raw-edge fusible machine applique along with some hand applique details (very similar to the type done on the Hello Sun QAL for this year) on some lady bugs I designed...

Here are the individual 12" blocks...

And here is the finished quilt top...

Then I did a frog just for fun... he will probably hop along on the back...

If you'd like to make something similar, you can either draw out a line design to use as I did or use a design from something like a coloring book.  You then trace it onto Steam a Seam Lite 2 fusible or something similar and fuse to your fabrics, layering as the design dictates.  Then to get the child's drawing-look, use a black thread to top-stitch the design with your sewing machine, going over the design 2-3 times in a semi-messy fashion and use a pearl cotton thread to hand stitch certain things like eyeballs and antennas.

Thanks for stopping by to see my dotty project!  I have a small giveaway if you are interested in 3 dotty fat quarters.  Leave a comment on this post (and make sure I have your contact information if you are a no reply blogger) and I will draw for them on the last day of this hop which is September 20th.  I would love it if you were a follower but it is not required to win.

Please be sure to visit all these other great folks I am sharing the day with below:

September 17th

A Quilt and A Prayer

Krislovesfabric <--you are here!!

Kelsey Sews

Gmama Jane

501quiltblocks 

Cherry Blossoms 

Quilting Linda 

Sheila's Quilt World

The Sunflower Patch

And the complete schedule can be found here
by clicking on the Dots on Dots button on her sidebar. 

September Sew.Bee.Create Block Done!

Sue asked for a Spiderweb String Block. If you'd like to try one of your own,
the tutorial can be found at: alamodefabric.blogspot.ca/2010/06/spider-web-quilt-block-...

I am in awe of her Halloween fabric stash, lots of interesting prints in there, lol!

Hope you're following along with the DOT Hop...



You can find the full schedule on Corrie's blog: Quilt Taffy

My day is Monday, September 17th...

Two down already!!

Amethyst

 

Barbara posted the block for this week here this morning and I got right to it...no lies, a seam ripper was used in the making of this block, lol!  Hope you all are joining me in this fun QAL.  She is providing so much great history in the fight for women's right to vote.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into Now?

So my fave friend Cheryl took me to a fabulous rug hooking show a couple of weeks ago where we met Polly Minick and her sister...you might be familiar with their work, lol...  Anyway, I've been eyeing that whale up there for awhile and really couldn't resist when Polly said she could make a smaller size version of the rug in kit form...I bit.  Of course I've never hooked a rug...good thing Cheryl took a class...!!

I went home and informed DH that I needed a frame...luckily Cheryl's had just made her one and shared his vast wisdom on the subject.  My long suffering husband got straight to it and even made it green.  This picture doesn't do it justice, I am petting it, it is so pretty (not on the bristly section mind you)  :) 

So voila...a frame...

Now I just need to corner Cheryl for my lesson!!!

Hello Sun September Block Done

Sometimes you just want immediate gratification...this is what this QAL means to me.  The part of this that takes the longest is choosing the fabrics...the rest just falls together easily :)

I finished the Hello Sun BOM QAL block today, now if I could just get caught up on all my other BOM projects!!  If you want to join us on this one, the patterns can be found here.  And the flickr group is here.

Grandmother's Choice BOW block 1 finished

So excited for this Block of the Week to Recall the Fight for Women's Rights to start!!  The first block is called Grandmother's choice and the pattern can be found on Barbara Brackman's new blog here.  The blocks finish at 8 inches and I am using gold and dark purple as Barbara has indicated those would reflect the coloring of signage and promotional materials for the American Women's Right to Vote movement.
This block went together quickly and so far I am happy with how my chosen fabrics are "playing" with each other.  It's worth looking at these posts whether you want to make the blocks with us or not (though I hope you do!) because of all the history Barbara includes.

Happy September!