Happy Leap Day!

A question for all my friends in warmer climates...

How on earth do you ever get any quilting done when it's in the 50's and 60's in February?!  I have been trying to get an early start putting my flowerbeds in order as the weeds are already making an appearance...

in between some very determined Spring posies!  

Our weekend was 20 degrees warmer than normal averages for Indiana this time of year...Yay!!

On the sewing front, I did manage to put together my small version of Doreen's (of Aunt 'Reens Place) new QAL.  She calls it the Big Leap Sew Along.  Use the above link to find the instructions!  Leap Year is a nice quirky thing to celebrate with a quilt, yes?!!  Thanks Doreen for great instructions and a fast and easy finish!

 Whew!  I should show you the outtakes on this one, that wind...she is a'blowin' !!

Thanks for your visit!

Last of the Blocks For Happy Days BOM - Month 1

This will be my last post on these blocks for this month as I have now run out of blocks to make.  You may remember me mentioning how much I am enjoying making these stars for Sarah Fielke's BOM this month.  We are supposed to pace ourselves through the year to use them to balance color in our quilts but they are oh so much fun to shop my stash for!!  I made an extra star to allow options for once I have to start thinking about where they will all be placed around the quilt...maybe I will use the extra star on the back incorporated into a label?
The next block(s) released for this quilt along BOM is scheduled for Leap Day...I am looking forward to that day as I have really enjoyed this so far!!  There is certainly plenty of time to join in at the link above.

 Sorry for the not so great indoor pictures, it is still really windy and a bit of heavy wet snow is hanging around.  We got just enough for my son to get a snow day reprieve from school today.

 You can tell my mood of hankering for sunshine based on the way the palette has been developing with this quilt.

 This is a group shot up on my portable design space...

Ready to Take the Leap!

I am playing along with Doreen's (of Aunt 'Reens Place) new QAL.  She's calling it the Big Leap Sew Along.  Use the above link to find the cutting instructions and third week sewing directions and come play with us!  Leap Year is a nice quirky thing to celebrate with a quilt, yes?!!

Sorry for the washed out picture - the weather is very uncooperative today and lots of cream background combined with some really pale blues makes a good true color is elusive to capture.  You can see that these blocks have a pretty open space within them...Doreen has a suggestion for that in her post linked above, check it out.  
Me...I am tempted but I do think I am going as-is and let this space get covered in a pretty quilted pattern.
 
This is the alternate block...I think I will enjoy sewing these blocks together with their summery feel!

My kind of Easter basket!

Be sure to check out Heidi's from Fabric Mutt newest tutorial:

I made this one this afternoon, she calls it a Pixie Basket...truly a "meet cute" moment - my kind of Easter basket filled with Aurifil 12wt wool thread.  We had the most glorious weather yesterday, I am trying to remember it's still winter here.  It was 65 degrees with full glorious sun...today not so much, but I am ready Spring...come along now!!

More Stars for the Happy Days Sarah Fielke BOM

You may remember me mentioning how much I am enjoying making these stars for Sarah Fielke's BOM this month.  We are supposed to pace ourselves through the year to use them to balance color in our quilts but they are oh so much fun to shop my stash for!! 
I am up to 15 stars now which is a bit over half of the way done.

These are a mix of AMH, Australian novelty M&S Textiles, and Denyse Schmidt...

The grubby one is an odd choice, yes...but thankfully AMH knows how to make bugs pretty...that lime green Loulouthi works well here.  I know this because her Field Study line contains the most amazing moths.  I need to locate my fat quarter of those moths as they would look good with all these Australian bugs Evan thought I needed!!

Here's a recap of the rest of my blocks so far...
 

Big Leap QAL Progress

I am using a long stashed away jelly roll to join in with Doreen's (of Aunt 'Reens Place) new QAL.  She's calling it the Big Leap Sew Along.  Use the link to find the cutting instructions and second week sewing directions and come play with us!  Leap Year is a nice quirky thing to celebrate with a quilt, yes?!!

 Here is the product of week 2's directions - I am making the smaller version and this only took me a couple hours...very do able to join in and catch up if you like!  I love the look of flowers in the snow :)

 This is the jelly roll I am using, an older line by Fig Tree Quilts called California Girl...yes, this Indiana girl is thinking of flowers in the winter...California dreaming.

Linking up with Aunt Reen's Place

Shenandoah Valley Botanical Album Quilt - Yellow Pink Tulip block

I am caught up with this one again yay!

I am sewing along with the Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt project - the pattern is provided by the Virginia Quilt Museum and all pattern sales benefit the museum. Dawn, from Collector with a Needle, and Doreen, from Aunt Reen’s Place, are hosting a quiltalong for this quilt, here.
The pattern size as provided by the museum easily makes 9 inch blocks. I am doing mine in wool so that I can make that size, many are enlarging the pattern and all the participant's resulting blocks are worth a look...so pretty!

This is the block labelled Yellow Pink Tulip...

 And here are all my blocks so far.
 Sorry for the poor photos, we have a really high blustery wind and some snowflakes and these are the best I could do!!

Shenandoah Valley Botanical Album - Star in the East block

I am a bit behind on these but I am taking my time because they are so much fun to stitch!  
I am sewing along with the Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt project - the pattern is provided by the Virginia Quilt Museum and all pattern sales benefit the museum. Dawn, from Collector with a Needle, and Doreen, from Aunt Reen’s Place, are hosting a quiltalong for this quilt, here.
The pattern size as provided by the museum easily makes 9 inch blocks. I am doing mine in wool so that I can make that size, many are enlarging the pattern and all the participant's resulting blocks are worth a look...so pretty!

 Here is my version of Star in the East.

 

 The Aurifil wool 12wt just melts into the applique!!

Here are all my blocks so far...

Buttermilk Basin Free BOM 2016

I finished the first block for Buttermilk Basin's newest free wool Block of the Month just in time for a light coating of snow last night.  We are not supposed to get much, just an inch or two...this winter has been pretty wimpy but it makes my heart happy that we haven't struggled with driveway clearing this year so I'll take it!

 Block 1 Buttermilk Basin Wool Block of the Month 2016 Let it Snow

Yesterday's mail brought me a happy fabric package from my friend Colette to whom I must have whined a little too loudly that I had wished I had known about this fabric when yardage was available.  
I used a piece from a fat eighth bundle recently purchased for my toad mouth for Amy's In Our Garden QAL.  The quotes are amazing but Colette, you shouldn't have!  Thank you  :)

A Few More Stars

If it wasn't for a few friends throwing some more squirrels (new shiny projects) my way, I would probably finish all these stars for Sarah Fielke's BOM this month, maybe even this week.  We are supposed to pace ourselves through the year to use them to balance color in our quilts but they are oh so much fun to shop my stash for!!

 Here is Mr. Angry Fish and what I believe is a Ray  (both from my Australian fabric fussy cuts)

 I think the kangaroo is an obvious choice, the other center block is an Australian fabric as well.

 Blocks 5-8 sitting pretty together.

And this is what I have done so far for Month 1 of Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM.  You can find info on the BOM here, still would be easy to join in if you would like!

One of the shiny new objects tossed my way is secret, so no sharing but the other is something to be shared...

I am going to use this long stashed away jelly roll and join into Doreen's (of Aunt 'Reens Place) new QAL.  She's calling it the Big Leap Sew Along.  Use the link to find the cutting instructions and come play with us!  Leap Year is a nice quirky thing to celebrate with a quilt, yes?!!

More Progress on Sarah Fielke's Happy Days BOM

I can tell I am not the only one excited about this BOM, the facebook group is just exploding with everyone's block pictures.  So many fun combinations. 
 
Here is my version of the other block that was released for this month...a churn within a churn design.  It is sitting on some texty fabric, that's not part of the block.

 I finally managed to get a bit of yellow introduced into the palette...much better now!

These are the blocks for month 1...though we are making several more stars total and I may be "forced" to make some more this month!!

My Post for Wandering Camera

My friend Soma has cooked up another fun idea with her series Wandering Camera.   Be sure to follow the link and check out all her wonderful tips, she shares some great ones on taking low light pictures...something February in Indiana is full of!!

These pictures were taken on my walk this morning, I hope to do a better job next month of taking pictures throughout the month...procrastination, yes...I believe thy name is Kris.

 This is a picture of one of my favorite things, our windmill!  The sky is very blue this morning...no clouds in sight.

 A picture of our cornfield through one of our apple trees.

This should have been a better picture, all the beaks pointed straight at me but the digital delay caused me to lose all but this lady who was slow to get down to be let out or fed.  That's the expectation from my ladies...if I am out, I bring them food or let them out to play in the sunshine.

 I am thankful for our woodpile, yay for cozy fires in the winter.

 This is our old plow, we haven't used it in years but it is fun to look at all covered in frost.

 Truly a heavy frost, crunches under my feet this morning...

 This is my walking buddy, he is very hard to get to standstill for a shot...can you see his unhappiness that I made him stay still?

 This is what he usually looks like, my walking (running) buddy Sam.  Ok, Soma...what do I do about this??

 The light is pretty filtering through our woods.

I shall call this one...waiting for the butterflies, a frost covered Milkweed pod.

Thanks for making it down here to the end, whew!!  Have a great day!

linking to WhimsandFancies.com Wandering Camera
 

In the Garden Block of the Month Has Begun!

The first two free blocks in the new blog hop this year with a Block of the Month flavor hosted by Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy have been released!  You can find the patterns here.

 These are my versions of blocks one and two...made with Riley Blake Fabrics.  I used mostly Calico Days but block one also uses 30s Mini Petals in purple and block 2 has Cottage Newsprint in Pink and OohLa La Dot in Aqua added in.

 A closer look at the cutesy frog Amy designed...I have a bit of trouble following a pattern to the letter and ended up adding a small butterfly to introduce the fabric from the first block.

In my actual garden news...hope to have better to report next month but the daffodils are trying to reach up through the soil as we have had unseasonably warm weather.  You can see a sprinkling of snow in the flowerbed but we haven't had enough to coat the ground in quite awhile.  I have been scolding these silly flowers as the weather is bound to change to thick snow before Spring...they are not listening and keep climbing higher!!


Here is the schedule for the full hop...

 February

Amy – Sew Incredibly Crazy

 

March

Carol – Just Let Me Quilt

 

April

Doris – Quilting Queen Online

 

May

Carla – Creatin’ in the Sticks

 

June

Sue – Super Mom No Cape

 

July

Joan – Moosestash Quilting

 

August

Kris – krislovesfabric <--that's me!!

 

September

Pat – Life in the Scrappatch

 

October

Vicki – More Stars in Comanche

 

November

Lana – It Seams to be Sew

 

December

Jan - Sew and Sow Farm

 

January

Amy – Sew Incredibly Crazy– Final Blocks and wrap up

 

And a special thanks to Riley Blake and the Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring my month of the hop in August.
 
In addition to the link above,you can join the Facebook page for all the latest news on this fun new adventure :)