If you are looking for my Think Christmas post and giveaway click here
There are many more days of this blog hop to go so check the master list at Lesley's blog for today's sites as well as the rest of the week until Monday.
And, I am happy to say we have surpassed the 100 followers goal and I will be posting another giveaway on August 6th just for my followers. It will be my 1 year blogiversary and a good time to thank all you readers for quilting along and making this journey so sweet!
Just a quick note on the giveaways, and, post comments in general...I have received many nice comments from No-Reply Bloggers...and I can't respond which makes me sad! If you are someone who wishes for a response and doesn't receive one...this may be YOU, lol!
Fix No Reply Blogging
With a few
changes to the settings in your Blogger profile, your email address
comes with your comment to my email inbox, this allows me to reply directly to you via email (which
makes it more fun for us both.)
The fix:
In blogger.com-- Click on Dashboard.
Select Edit Profile.
Check the box for "Show my Email Address."
Save changes.
I decided to use my go-to pattern book from Barbara Brackman...
I've had this book about as long as I've been quilting and consider it one of my best references when looking for block inspiration.
My little engineer head loves the way she organizes everything!! You can find a copy on Amazon but even used, it's salty...my copy was published in 1993.
Barbara has a blog where she references it being out of print but no timeline as to another printing or going digital...
Anyway, I wanted to do something Nine- Patchy, so I looked under the heading of Equal Nine Patch and picked this block...#1689a
This block has been called many things according to the reference book starting in 1894, but in 1936 Nancy Cabot called it Three and Six. This seems a good descriptive name since there are 3 whole squares and 6 HST's in this block.
I really like it done up in Moda's French General. The off-white Poinsettia print as well as the red print are from their Fa-la-la-la-la line.
To make one of these for yourself you would need to cut: 3 Light Squares 4 7/8" 3 Dark Squares 4 7/8" 3 Light Squares 4 1/2"
This will yield one 12 1/2" block.
You will put right sides together of the three dark/light 4 7/8" pairs, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the light square and sew 1/4" from each side of the line.
Next, cut apart the 6 HST on the drawn line and press toward the dark triangle. Then you can trim the HST's to 4 1/2" and arrange them with the remaining 4 1/2" light squares as shown below...
Sew in rows and then join to form this simple but beautiful 12 1/2" block.
French General Fa-La-La-La-La
Now, you could make 4 blocks and you would end up with this pretty topper above...
Or you can do what I did and make 20 blocks to make this quilt top below. I also put on a 4 1/2" border out of the light fabric to finish this top. I apologize for the lack of pretty scenery in these pictures! The drought around here has really taken a toll on my landscaping...the soybeans are still green but they are the only thing green, at this point!
Haha, I figured I better take a picture of the top with some Indiana sweet corn in the backdrop...since this is "Christmas in July"...
I pinned the top to my husband's mighty "rhino enclosure" capable of keeping our garden free of bunnies, raccoons, and deer. I call it that because he used cut off telephone poles as fence posts...and it's, eh...kind of "sturdy", lol!
I find that a busy background fabric as I chose here really benefits from a simple design and I think this block looks striking in these fabrics. That being said, I wanted to try it in a couple of other combinations, as well...
Now, for the giveaway...I have a Kate Spain Flurry charm pack to give to a lucky comment maker. Please make a comment on which block above you prefer, just for my curiosity ;) or tell me your favorite Christmas Carol.
This is Straight No Chaser, and one of my son's favorite Christmas Songs. The fact that they incorporate Toto's Africa into the end is fun. As a Purdue graduate, I still can enjoy this Indiana University A Capella group but when they do their school song I cringe a bit as we are from rival schools...
I love this fabric collection, Flurry, as well as her other two Christmas lines, they are all such happy collections! In order to be entered in the giveaway I ask that you not be a no-reply blogger or have a way for me to contact you if you win...otherwise I will draw another.
You do not need to be a follower to win this giveaway but if I can get to 100 followers, I will have another giveaway on a separate post just for my wonderful followers so stay tuned...we are getting close!
Good luck in the giveaway and be sure to visit these other wonderful sites that I have the pleasure of joining with today! **edited to add...I will draw on August 5**** thanks!
Mdm Samm and Lesley are hosting the Think Christmas Blog Hop starting Monday and that happens to be my day so be sure to stop back for that, I have a quilt top to show as well as a giveaway!
And, starting in September is another blog hop involving dots...click on the button on my sidebar to get info on this one, sign ups are open until Friday, Corrie at Quilt Taffy will be hosting.
I have been working on the Mario block and have decided the sticky interfacing Pellon 542 would be better used if not for the large size of these blocks...that means the 99 cent a yard Pellon 44F is my interfacing of choice...it is much easier to overlap. I am thinking I will put a light batting in the quilt to make up for the extra bulk of interfacing and seams. Here are my squares laid out on the interfacing on top of a muslin grid.
If you want to join in on this QAL you can find it at Angela's Cut to Pieces blog here.
I was out of town yesterday so just had a chance to use Mr. Random and it chose number 104...now I happen to know she will like this fabric win as we have discussed the greatness of Sandy Gervais fabric lines before, lol!
That's really a cute block and of course it had to have stitching. I love anything Sandy G designs. Throw my name in the hat.
I will email you Billie so you can send me your address!!
Thanks to all that entered and if this wasn't your lucky day be sure to try again on the 30th when I will post for the Think Christmas blog hop with another giveaway!
I think they have extended the deadline on that hop so if you'd like to join in the fun, use the link above or the button on my sidebar...
But I am ahead of the game on this one for July!! I feel a bit bad for Mr. Fish, there...
If you want to join us in this QAL, it is through April at Making Ends Meet and the flickr group is here. We started in January but they are quick to put together and you have plenty of time!
So I am planning to do this Super Mario Bros QAL through Angela's Cut to Pieces.
Combine this with the RWB Blog Hop (see my post here...psst...there's a giveaway)
Where I meet this crazy cool quilter, Karen of The Recipe Bunny, who's made her own Mario quilt and patterns...a bit of bartering later...and voila...I am making Karen's "Boo" pattern which I believe is my son's fave character.
This is all 324 - 1 1/2" squares laid out over my new 30 x30 ironing board (see post below). It is on top of Pellon P44F stabilizer and a muslin grid. This technique is from Elizabeth Hartman's great Stamp Collection block tut here.
This is a pic of the back after sewing the vertical seams, cutting those seams, and pressing them open.
This is a pic after sewing the horizontal seams and having cut 3/4 of them open and running out of steam last night, lol!
This is Boo in "time-out", I think I have had enough iron time for today but he probably could use a bit more pressing into submission before I trim him square and call him done ;)
Now, I am still interested to see how the methods differ in the QAL from what I did with this one...it is a bit pot-holder-esque with the stabilizer and Angela is using a wash-away. Karen is too cool for us both and just sewed all those itty bitty squares together without stabilizer...may we all bow before her! ;)
Thanks so much Karen for letting me use your awesome pattern!! Be sure to visit her blog as she is rapidly putting the finishing touches on her quilt and the sneaky peeks look amazing :)
This is the back before fusible fleece...I'm still waiting for the canvas to dry. The directions called for wetting it down to shrink it and make it tight across the board.
This is the 18" x 24" one:
and this is the back, again before the fleece is added.
I am hoping the 30 inch square one will be handy for the Mario QAL. The starting grid will be 18 x 18 one and a half inch squares. This should fit well on this big board if I decide to go with fusible interfacing. If not it'll still be great for pressing yardage :)
The thermometer is telling me it's 106 degrees today...I've lost count of how many 100+ days we've had this year...crazy!
To all American readers, Happy Independence Day. And to everyone, Happy 4th of July :)
Thanks to Jane and Mdm Samm for allowing me the pleasure of being part of this hop! The full master schedule can be found at Jane's blog or look at the bottom of my post today...
My block is a firecracker in honor of the fact that we have a burn ban in our area this year due to severe drought so this is the only one we are likely to see tonight.
Below you can see it in all it's 10 1/2" unfinished glory...
Stats: 10 1/2" block (I didn't paper piece, just strip pieced my stripes and cut at an angle. Then I used a "slash and whack technique" to insert the firecracker in the middle and embroidered my phrasing with a Microsoft Word font template)
Here is a pictoral description of what I did if you care to replicate it in some fashion...
Above is my Red and Blue strip set and the start to cutting it into a firework shape.
Next, I placed it on my white 13" square at a pleasing angle and cut the first "slash".
Then I cut the other two slashes and removed the white piece from underneath my "firecracker".
Then it was just a matter of joining the pieces back together.
Embroidering the phrase and cutting the block down to 10 1/2".
Here is a close up of the embroidery.
I couldn't resist finishing it with a stitch in the ditch simple quilting design and placing it in the frame we used for the last hop so here is the finished table topper. Whew! Do my posies look dry or what? And this was not too long after
the 1.5" drenching we got from Friday night's storm. It sure has been
dry around here lately. But I am through complaining as we spent 2 1/2 days without power and still have friends and family without power today. We sure had quite a whopper of a storm.
I do have a giveaway to offer if you'd like to leave a comment on this post...I will draw on July 16 which is the end of the hop.
This is a half yard of the red (Nautical & Nice from Sandy Gervais for Moda) and a half yard of the white(Bubbles from Sandy Gervais for Moda). Good luck in the drawing and have a Happy 4th of July! Also, please be sure I can contact you as I will make another draw if you are a no-reply blogger!
Be sure to visit the other blogs "on" for today and through the rest of the hop!
She sent a pile o' scraps for these which I hope I did justice with...
She had me at the text fabric here and I was able to fussy cut the "i love fabric" and "embroidery" words which takes it over the top for me :) I added the aqua in lieu of a purple print she sent me, hope she's ok with it!
You can tell with this one that she sent a lot of animal "I spy" prints.
So we have been without power for two days due to a large storm that had 90 mph winds! And the "word" is it may be the end of the week before it is restored so I am thinking I need to invest in a treadle machine! Anyway, not much happening here sewing-wise so good thing you can visit all the bogs below between now and July 16th! Jane is hosting and the master list is shown below...come back to join me as my day is the 4th...hopefully I will have power back by then but we're not counting on it....have fun hopping!
**** edited to add****
Our power has been restored way before schedule tonight by the wonderful I&M power workers! Please continue to pray for the 80,000 + people still without power in the area as the heat is climbing again this week into the high 90's. As well as all those in the other states that were in the path of this crazy storm!
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