Sewing Kit... Zakka Style

A dear friend celebrated a monumental birthday last week. Some Melody Miller Ruby Star Shining fabric...

and the sewing kit pattern from Zakka Style...

A special gift for a special friend!

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Giveaway winner and more!

Thank you all for your gracious comments about my block and resulting quilt. I can see tons of possibilities with it from quilts, to pillows, to bags. And we have a winner of the magazine!

QuilterKat ~ send me your address and we'll get it to you!

My blogging was somewhat remiss last week. We've been busy with outdoor preparations for winter beautifully described in this poem. As much as I love the warm months and the garden, I always look forward to long winter evenings snuggled under a quilt with some hand-stitching.

And speaking of hand-stitching, I have a pile of completed quilts - they just need their bindings hand-stitched. Some show-and-tell coming soon!

Quilters are known for stepping up in times of need. After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy many organizations are now collecting quilts and hand-made items to help ease the pain so many are feeling. For a nice list of organizations spearheading collections be sure to visit the Martingale Blog - Stitch This!

I'll be sending 2 quilts to Bumble Beans. I've donated to this organization in the past and they are already in the process of distributing quilts to Sandy victims.

In other fun news, this month was my turn to distribute my blocks in the STL Redbird Bee. I chose this block using scraps of teal, orange, brown and orange-yellow. I'm very excited to have a quilt made by some special friends!

And finally, I've been a lucky quilter. I recently won all these great giveaways and want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to:

 Bon Bon Atelier for the beautiful stack of solid voile quarter yards (not quite sure what to do with those; any ideas?)

Free Spirit Fabrics and 100 Quilts for Kids for the stack of "Essentials" fat quarters

Modern Quilt Relish and Alissa Haight Carlton's Action Kivu fundraiser for a complete set of 13 patterns (love them all!)

Heather Mulder Peterson for her 2 new patterns Galleria and Little Charmers 7 (can't wait to try them!)

It's so much fun to win free stuff!! . . . Cindy

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100 Blocks Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Welcome to my stop on Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks vol. 6 Blog Tour!

My block is #583 Lattice. The fabrics are from Amy Butler's Lark collection. I love how the black print square seems to float.

The magazine editors did a great mock-up of a quilt with the block set on point.

My quilt uses 2" finished sashing to connect the blocks. I used a strip in the center of each sashing unit to connect the blocks. Did you notice I made one block in red for a pop?

 The magazine is filled tons of inspiration and more awesome blocks! It'll be released on November 13th!  How about a free copy? I've got one to give away - leave a comment and I'll pick a name on Monday morning November 12th!

For even more prizes and the complete list of bloggers on the hop head over to Quilty Pleasures Blog! Hope you win!!    . . . Cindy

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Quilting my Dresden Fan

Where has this week gone?? Seems like not too much has been accomplished in the sewing room this week. In my quest to stop the quilt top pile-up, I did get my Dresden Fan quilt basted and the quilting started.

Here's a lesson! My plan was to stipple the white background and individually quilt the "fans" with colored thread. I did about 20 minutes of stippling and realized many of the blades would require starting and stopping for each one since there was no where to travel with colored thread. It's always good to take a thorough look at the quilt before going too far. I was able to easily rip out my stippling and come up with a new idea.

I ended up with "squiggly" concentric circles going round and round the block. I'll go back and quilt something in the center octagons.

Where the blocks come together, I used a stencil to create the perfect little flower.

Now that I've got a plan B, hopefully my pin cup will fill up quickly! Have a great weekend!! . . . Cindy

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String Quilt

I've finished up the top for my String Quilt. This is supposed to be a stash-buster quilt. Yes, all of the fabrics are from my stash - but who am I kidding? This stash is not going to be busted in my lifetime!

I love multi-fabric quilts and this is surely one! But I really do have to have the coordinated look of a planned scrap quilt. The color theme was grays and reds with just a touch of gray-blue. I tried to keep it soft by using reds with a lot of pink in them. There's only one fabric that is all red. The same goes for the grays. There are a variety of shades, but only one or two fabrics that are really dark. I think it needs those dark pieces, but only in small nibbles.

This was an easy one to do. Much faster than I ever anticipated once I got a rhythm going.

The pattern is from Film in the Fridge ~ the Ruby String Quilt.    . . . Cindy

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pillow love!

My English Paper Pieced pillow is done - quilted and stuffed!

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. The inspiration came from here and all the paper supplies are available here.

Pretty sweet looking sitting on the sofa!  . . . Cindy

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Spinning Stars ~ some hand quilting

This weekend, Fall was definitely in the air, and I had the urge to do a bit of hand quilting. My Spinning Stars quilt top had been pieced for a week or two. It just took some basting...

And some shopping for the perfect shades of No. 8 Pearl Cotton...

One block done....

Eight more to go!

. . . Cindy

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