Exciting Times

I have way too much to put into one post but I am afraid I am going to forget something.  I also like to have things to say every day so I am going to just do some talking and the rest will have to wait till tomorrow, *sigh*.
First my friend Craig has entered the McCall's design star contest.  He made it into the first challenge round and now needs people to go and vote for his amazing quilt.  Voting is here, and you can vote once a day for the next 2 weeks.  So what are you waiting for?  Go, NOW!!  Just make sure you come back because I have more stuff to tell you about, k?

Next up, remember that incredible improv quilt I had the opportunity to put together? 

Well, it has finally arrived at it's new home and the proud owner is...

HEATHER ROSS!!!

Yes, she is expecting her first baby in July and this amazing quilt was done for her new baby by a group of Flickr friends.  She sent a note today to the person that facilitated the quilt and let us know that she had received it and was so thrilled!  I guess she cried when she saw it and especially when she read the label we had done. 

 

 She said the quote we used (one of hers) was especially dear to her.  How amazing is that?  Faith (in charge of our group) put together a book that had each block and a note from each person to her, as well as photos of the quilt etc.  I am thrilled that I got to be a part of something so incredible.  Everyone in the group did an amazing job with their block, PTM did her usual fantastic job embroidering the label and doing the binding and LTW's quilting was great!!  So now you know who the quilt was for!!

I still want to tell you about my nephew's wedding reception on Sat but that is going to have to wait for a little bit.  Hope you are all having a great Tuesday, ~XOP~

Prelude to NYC

I have lots to share before I leave for the week. First, I ordered some fabric from Hawthorne Threads and from Sew Mama Sew. It is the Peacock line by Allison Jane Smith and I am sooo in love with it. Here you will see the lovely Aiden modeling my package from SMS.


I just fell in love with this and it is so much prettier in person.

But I bought one piece of Farmdale too. Love it.

Not sure why I find this so appealing but I sure do. This is the FQ bundle I bought from Hawthorne. Just GORGEOUS!!

I especially love the actual peacock fabric.

Then I received a package from McCall's Quilts. Remember me entering my quilt and not making it to the second challenge? Well there were only 3 quilts that did not advance and mine was one of the three. You know how when you are looking at all the entries and you choose "the ugly" ones? It was kind of a shock to realize that my quilt was "one of those". I really didn't/don't think so but obviously it was. Is that like having a child only a mother can love too? Now before you all tell me something different, just realize that no matter what anyone says, it still stings just a little bit. My ego is a little bruised. Maybe that's what I needed? I'm over the contest and think things are working out in a different direction so no worries about me! All that being said, here is what they sent to me.

Quite the haul wouldn't you agree?? I have shared some of it with my BFF, PTM too because she is soooo good to me.

Speaking of that my other BFF LTW, and I went to Checker again and picked up our order. That was a fun morning on Friday. I drove PTM's stuff to her and there were tea towels in the box. We were talking about making something for us to give Heather Ross when I see her and when I got to PTM's she had made these darling bags (using HR fabric). One for her, one for Heather and one for me. I don't have pics of the bags but I will. Then she took the tea towels and washed them and traced a little something on mine for me to embroider. I finished mine and here it is:

It is a free pattern from Bird Brain Designs. I am also giving her some homemade salsa.

This brings you up to date on my comings and goings. I need to finish the laundry, go to the grocery and pack, we are leaving early tomorrow. If I can get internet I will post while I am gone otherwise I will see you all on the 25th.

Lots to talk about.

That's right, I really do have quite a bit to share. I will start by saying that I laid out my JEQAL blocks and realized that I needed to re-make one of the blocks. I had three that were mostly white and it looked weird, so I changed one, the easiest one, of course, did you even have to ask. Here is the new one.

I really like how this one came out too. It looks soooo much better with the rest of the blocks. Next I began putting my crazy rail quilt together. You can see all the rows here
I managed to get the entire center sewn on Wed night at quilting. Now on to the borders!
I ordered some Holiday Happy from Sharon's shop and it came this week too. Isn't it pretty??

She had a wonderful sale but I missed out on the Santa gnomes. Maybe I will pick some up at another time, we,ll see. Stop in and see Miss Sharon and tell her I sent you.

As you know I entered the McCall's Design Star contest and I am a finalist. I thought, since my top is posted I would show you a photo of the top (and one of me too).

I am so happy with how it came out. If you have a minute use the link on my side bar to go and vote for me. If you wanted to leave a comment I sure would appreciate that too. One quilt has 42 comments already! I think I have 8. (ohhh all my insecurities are coming out again...)
This morning I opened the front door to let Jack out and I looked down and saw this

Well, hello there Mr. Toad, I said, and he just looked at me. He was literally knocking on the door, too funny.

OK, enough chit chat for now, got to go, eat and get ready to go out to a quilting meeting. I did finally take some photos of our peachicks, even a video of one of them flying to me to land on my arm but that will have to wait until tomorrow. They are so cute and getting so BIG. Maybe I will have my DD1 take a photo of my awesome scar face from fighting off the Ninja warriors to share with you tomorrow too. Wow won't you all be surprised at that!? Until tomorrow then.

Voting Begins Today

Voting begins today. You can now click on the button on the left side bar to go directly to my quilt and vote for it.

If you get a minute please go and vote for me. I appreciate your time and effort!

I won two Giveaways!

Yep, I sure did. I won this wonderful book from one of the giveaways.


The other one is in a Halloween Arts Giveaway here. This is the item I won. It's called "Guess Who Gourd. Cool huh? Made by Deborah Adams and you can find her blog here.


I have been busy with life but promise I will be back soon. Voting begins tomorrow on the first challenge quilt in the McCall's Design Star contest. I don't have the link yet but it will be available at midnight tonight. I will post it on my blog tomorrow. You can vote once a day on each computer you have. I sure would appreciate it if you would take a minute over the next few weeks to go and vote for me!

Now off to the gym for Body Vive!

Designing is Difficult!

I had the opportunity to work all day on Sunday on the quilt I have designed and am now making for the McCall's Design Star Challenge. I am pretty happy with how it is coming along. It's amazing what the humble strings can turn into, LOL. If you are following along, you will remember my color palate is aqua and green with white. Two different star patterns. I love my humble strings! Here are the first few building blocks.

Notice how they form a darker square in the center...except that the one in the lower right corner is not playing nicely. The string I chose for the defining line reads more as a medium. So I scrapped that block and made another one. Then I got to put my star together. It is a dark aqua square in the center, inside a medium aqua square using light aqua points. Please let me know what you think of this one. I am in love with it!

In fact block 2 quickly followed! So now there are two!!

You should know that each finished star is 24" x 24"! So they are BIG!!! Easy right? NOPE!
All those seams coming together with the addition of foundation made lining things up tricky. I think I managed but there was some un-sewing involved.
Then I sewed the green string blocks. I layed out 2 different versions of that star.

In the end, I decided that the first one could be deemed to be the same as the aqua star, so I made the one with the pinwheel in it. I still have the 4th one to put together and then I can begin the borders. I am still playing around with that. I will keep you posted though.

It's 11:30pm, and I am beat, but can't go to bed just yet as I *finally* made salsa and still want to can it before I go to bed. I am washing the jars in the dishwasher and have everything in a state of boiling in anticipation of the jars. It is my first attempt at canning my salsa, so will let you know how it turns out!
I took tomorrow off work so I can go over to PTM's house and "play" with her, her sister and her niece. I am looking forward to it. I hope to bring some border stuff to work on, or maybe the HST blocks for the mermaid quilt. I will have to see if I can borrow DD1's camera since mine has decided to stay broken. OK, time to go and finish the canning!!

It's GREEN!!

If you were guessing about the second color in the quilt it is green. Here are the humble beginnings on my work table.


Along with a sneak peek at the rough graph of the quilt.

It is really my thinking pad, so what's there may still change. Sometimes these things evolve as I work.

Of course I have to show you the "help" I am receiving with this one too. You would think they were hatching eggs as they seem to take turns shedding laying on it, like a hen brooding over her eggs.

I thought you might like to see the books we are able to choose our blocks from too so I snapped a quick pic this am.

So there you have it. I hope to begin some sewing tonight, or at least maybe finish all the stripping (of the fabric, now get your minds out of there, although it *is* my 27th anniversary on Friday so there is someone that might actually appreciate the other kind of stripping = ) LOL!!!

Let me know what you think.

More on the Design Contest

I just received an email telling me I can share the progress and the process with you all on my quilt top entry. In fact they are "encouraging" us to share with you all! Imagine that! I haven't taken any photos yet but will begin tonight.

So if you want insight into my process I can begin writing about that. If not skip this post and come back later for photos. BTW my DD2's 22 birthday was yesterday and so we are celebrating tonight. What does this mean for you? Possibly no pics until tomorrow. Sorry but got to keep the fam happy you know?

Back to the process. When I first found out I was a finalist, I had no idea what the first challenge would be. Then we found out that it was 2 traditional blocks. OK, how to make something that would catch your eye and make myself stand out using only 2 blocks? Hmmm. I considered a Halloween quilt using a haunted house. Nope no applique other than the blocks in Barbara Brackman's applique book. Next? Well, let's see, they wanted it to reflect who we are as designers. One of my favorite things to design with is strings. You know I have done lots of that. At first I thought of making 2 different kinds of multi colored string stars on an aqua background. I continued to think about it and finally, last night it came to me. I will make 2 different string stars, BIG ones (kind of like the orphan star I made using left overs from the big M quilt). I have drawn them out on graph paper. I went to the library and picked up the 2 books we are allowed to use blocks from. I was kind of anxious to know that what I wanted to make was in the book! I found a different take on one of the stars that I think will be awesome for this quilt!

I also changed the color palate. Instead of multi colored stars I am going to use single colored stars. Aqua and red? orange? or green? Decisions, decisions. Can you guess which one I chose? (remember we are supposed to show who we are). I let you know when I post pictures!

McCalls Quilt Star Design Contest

Remember me continually bugging you all to go and vote for my quilt? Well I was selected as a finalist in the McCalls Quilt Star Design contest!! That is what I needed the profile pictures for!!! If you click on the link on my side bar it will take you to the profile page of all the finalists. If you want to see what I wrote you can click on mine. If you have another minute it would be great if you can leave a comment. I think every insecurity is flaring up in my body at the moment!!

There are 3 challenges we have agreed to participate in. The first one was given to us on Friday. I'm so excited and nervous! I have changed my design at least 10 times but I think I know what I want to do now. The challenge is to use 2 traditional blocks to make a top no smaller than 24" . It can be bigger than just not smaller than. We have to send a digital photo of the completed top (they don't want this one quilted) by September 13th (I think that's the date). We had to sign a paper stating we would not tell anything about this until we had permission. I don't know if we are supposed to share our tops and progress, I guess I will have to ask. I have been assigned to one of the editors and she has been very nice and very helpful.

So that's the BIG adventure here. I will see what I am allowed to share. You should know that once the quilt tops have been sent they will be posted and the month long, vote for me every day emails and posts will resume, right?? Seriously, thanks to everyone that voted and helped me get to at least the first round.