Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Time Warp Stars, Quilt Top Finish And a Rainbow!

On the eve of a new star tomorrow, I am caught up with Barbara Brackman's Stars in a Time Warp......cadet blue and celestial, along with "neon".

I have enjoyed making these stars and wonder what Barbara will come up with for next year!  There Has to be Something!!!



This afternoon I FINALLY had some TIME (which means 2-3 hours!) to SEW!  With No Interruptions!   I applied the final two flying geese borders to my Medallion Quilt.  Will have a longarmer friend baste it so I can handquilt it.




 But......I will need to wait until I finish the remaining 10 or so stars on my "Hope" Collection for a Cause quilt.  I plan to finish handquilting the stars and then see if my friend will longarm quilt the zigzag strips.  Used a wool batting, and the quilt is light and super warm but handquilting would not show up on the printed zigzag so I will choose a different option!  Will be able to use the quilt sooner too!





 Sunday evening as we were preparing to go to my stepdaughter's house for dinner, I caught a glimpse from the kitchen window of the tree-covered hill beyond the pasture.....love the way the setting sun makes the trees glow!!  Then, I discovered the rainbow and ran to get the camera.  Beauteous!  
Have been having trouble with my laptops, and while they are with the computer doc, I have resorted to my faithful Old Tower that I've had since 1998!  Of course, there was a problem with it, too, when I turned it on today......a corrupted file ......managed to fix it, or rather the computer fixed itself when I restarted it!  Restarting sometimes works wonders in this computer world!  Back later, (with pix of PEI trip) Good Lord willing and the computer does not fail!!

And one more thing......Joan, winner of the box of fabric samples, contacted me promptly and will receive the box tomorrow!  She lives only about 45 minutes from me...........had no idea until she gave me her address!  I'll get another box of fabric samples ready soon! 

Friday, October 23, 2015

Giveaway Winner and Catching Up!!!!!


Did not mean to be gone so long with the Giveaway winner!  Life has been just plain TOO Busy for my liking and I sure hope it settles down soon!!

The Winner of my Giveaway of a box of fabric samples is......Joan and Kevin which is comment #22 that my random generator  (husband) picked.  If you see this posting, you will need to send me your address as there is no email address to contact you.  After three days, we'll pick another number, if I haven't heard from you.  And there are Lots more Samples left in the box to give away!  I want the box empty soon so I will start giving away twice a month!  

My QAL with Lori of humblequilts.blogspot.com.  Loved making it and seeing everyone else's version of it!  Still debating about a border.....or not.




Recent new Fabric arrivals!!!First up is "Eliza's Indigo" by Betsy Chutchian, her first line with Moda.  What can I say.....it is gorgeous!  And if you have Quiltmania #109, there is a quilt made with the cheddar/gold that is beautiful, simple, but beautiful......might like to make it.....or at least add it to the list!





 These solids from "Eliza's Indigo" are wonderful.....they feel so nice and I really like the "texture"......not mottled....really Nice!  The two Lights seem excellent for applique backgrounds!



This is "Loire Valley" by Karen Styles.......nice pink and florals.


These stripes might provide nice designs for fussy-cutting Hexagons, or, for sashing or narrow borders.  Nice brown with just a touch of yellow accent.


 "Carolina Blues"  by Paula Barnes.....NICE Indigoes with yellow motifs reminiscent of antique fabric called Luminaries.  The top fabric does not show the yellow designs well except in the upper right corner!



I'll leave you with this poem I learned in Fifth Grade with Mrs. Fitzsimmons......I loved it then when I had to memorize it and love it still!  The October sky is a brighter blue in this neck of the woods anyway......probably because the humidity is gone and we can see it more clearly!!

October's Bright Blue Weather


O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather. 










Sunday, October 11, 2015

It's Been a While.......................


Can't believe a whole month has passed since last post!  Finally caught up on Barbara Brackman's Time Warp Stars.......Here are Lancaster Blue and Greek Key.  Swapped blue for keys with a friend who found some on the net.  As it turned out, I found I had some in some old Judie Rothermel stripe but just did not recognize it in time!





And here are Chocolate-Blue and Printed Lace.  Another friend came through with the lace!  I have some lace print fabric from many years ago, but it is an "allover" and I think we needed to use lace stripes.


These two, black-grey and Asian prints were not hard to find!


Nor was Claret!  Nice thing about this particular Claret is that the back is a lovely solid color that might be useful when appliqueing flowers that need several colors for shading.


Last month Sue Watters (her blog can be found here) from the UK visited and brought me and Wendy (her blog can be found here) each a little quilt!  Isn't it darling?  It is such fun to meet fellow bloggers!  Another one is coming later this month from the west coast I think!  



New fabrics include these "Polychromes" from Margo Krager (Andover).


Plans to go to the Red/White Infinite Variety show in NYC in 2011 were thwarted by illness in family.  Book is the next-best-thing!  I love the look of 2-color quilts but I think it would take me a long time to make one!  Quilts of multitudinous colors appeal to me the most!


"Nurture" pre-cuts by Collection for a Cause by Moda is here.......lovely Early Prints (1810-1840) that I love!   Bolts have also arrived!  Nice Tree of Life center medallion comes in a kit.


Also, "Alice's Scrapbag" by Barbara Brackman is new and I want to use it soon!





One reason it has been a while is because I took some vacation time and went to Prince Edward Island in Canada, accompanied by my oldest granddaughter.   (Actually, I accompanied Her!  Nice to not have to be the driver anymore!)  The pbs movie is what she fell in love with when she was about 7-8!  Nearly wore out my old vhs tape!  But we have dvd now!  This is just one photo of the Anne of Green Gables' house.........will post more later.....loved the interior......I first visited in 1989 and found that the house was similar to what I had imagined when I read the books around the age of 10-11.  Remember when we had to "imagine" back in the day before movies?!  My mother had loved the books as a child and when she gave the thick, hardcover books to me for Christmas, I was rather intimidated, but once I started reading, I could not put it down!  She got me the whole series so it must have kept me busy for a while!


We stayed at this Lovely B&B in Charlottetown, the Fitzroy Inn!  A beautiful old (built 1872) house filled with antiques!  Will have more photos later.....our room was on the third floor (dormer on the left).


I have absolutely no business starting anything new right now but this little table topper on the cover of an old "Quilts and More" magazine caught my eye and I started rummaging through the fall fabric shelf!  Hhhhmmm,  Might need to change out that white background hexie now that I see it in a photo!  English-Pieced over paper........had to also go rummaging for the cardstock  subscription forms in some old magazines....... one thing I have Not Saved over years, but guess I need to stockpile a few now!!

Time for another Giveaway of another 90 of the fabric sample packets!  For those of you who like to make small, scrappy quilts!


They fill this medium, flat rate box!

I have a new favorite color!