I'm a Winner...

I opened up my email this morning to discover that I won a Blogger's Choice FQ pack from a giveaway from the Fat Quarter Shop. A great way to start the day.

I answered the 3 correct guesses for Amy Webb's Blogger's Choice.

I was surprised and stoked at the same time. Now what can I make with it. The planning is in progress. I'm going to have some fun with this bundle.

For all my blogging friends out there, I'm around but have been busy working hard at getting some projects finished. So my blogging has been scarce but I've been keeping up with what others are doing. I have a couple of new completed projects to share so I will post soon, I promise.

Liebster Award

I've been nominated for.... 

Doniene from Now it's just quilts nominated me. I was a bit surprised to receive this award as I wasn't expecting it at all. Like Doniene, I use my blog to check out other blogs for inspiration and keep a progress of my own achievements along the way. It's my own virtual diary.

So apparently, I inspire Doniene with the following:

amazing use of color in her quilting projects! and a darling family!          

Thanks Doniene. What a lovely thing to say. I enjoy visiting your blog as well. 

So the Liebster Blog Award has the following conditions. It goes to some one who has less than 200 followers and who has inspired, encouraged or otherwise caught your attention.

So I would like to nominate the following bloggers for inspiring, encouraging and catching my attention in the blog land.

Marti can churn out the quilts. I love seeing what she had made or has in progress in her next posts. Marti you are truly an inspiration to me. I would love to make half of the patterns or quilt tops that you do.

Michele. I linked up with her Mystery Mini Round Robin Swap. She loves color. I really enjoy reading her blog and where her inspirations come from.

Ellen has the most beautiful quilts. I love watching her progresses. She encourages me to sink my teeth into working with my civil war reproduction fabrics.

Mary. I discovered Mary whilst participating in the Jacob's Ladder QAL hosted by Freda. Mary made an amazing Jacob's ladder quilt whilst mine is still in a slow production mode. It's inspirational and an encouragement to finish mine off.

Lastly, I would like to award my friend Simone. We encourage each other in our quilting endeavors. She is a very special friend and I am extremely grateful that I have gotten to know her and her lovely girls over the past few years. Lets keep encouraging each other as we continue on our quilting journeys.

B.I.N.G.O - May for me

Calling fellow bloggers. It's getting closer to have your Bingo cards ready for the May for Me Bingo.

Want to join in the fun. Go and visit Hillbilly Tonya and check out the rules. There are lots of great prizes to be had. All I had to do was raid my stash and use 2.5" squares. There is a color theme for each of the letters of Bingo but you can see it clearly in my card for sure. 

Here is my card.

B (Blue) - sheep, alphabet, Planet, cotton, hearts

I (Yellow) - butterfly, checkerboard, cat, daisy, excavator

N (Red) - ladybug, star, blank, stripes, tomatoes,

G (Green) - tractor, holly, stocking, plaid, truck

O (Purple) - leaves, cloud, spots, suns, flowers

Anyone else want to have some fun too? Entry close Saturday. I completed my card in one evening once the fabric was cut and that didn't take long either. So come along and join in the fun.

Octagonal rings

I wanted to make a quick Easter gift for my friend Simone. I just loved the Octagonal Orb block that I used as part of my Modern Mini Challenge. It was super quick and easy to put together. I decided to use the basis of the pattern and try something different. Instead of using all of the scrappy squares and rectangle for the design I went with 2.5" strips. I also added a couple of extra borders to the original octagonal design as well to make the finished quilt bigger.

 I love my model. Hard at work.

I wanted to try out and see what it would look like heavily quilted. I only did this in the backgr0und fabric. I loved the look of the quilting and was extremely happy with the results. I have found the best thread to use with the Kona Med Grey. Its Madeira Cotona 30wt color 688. It is just divine on the grey background. The Kona Med Grey is my new favorite color for background fabric. 

 

 Octagonal Rings

Finished Quilt Size: 29" X 29"
Fabric:  Background used was Kona Medium Grey, Art Gallery fabrics for the rings and binding. Backing used was a solid Candy pink.

Pattern: Oh Fransson's Octagonal Orb Block designed by Elizabeth Hartmann

Quilting: Straight line quilting.

Made for: Simone 
Completed: April 2012

Easter and an abundance of chocolate

Well Happy Easter everyone!! I hope that the Easter bunny found everyone. I know he found me and left some yummy chocolate behind.

I finished "Octagonal rings" and gave it my friend Simone for Easter. She loves it. I will post more about it another time.

W.I.P Wednesday - Back into Action

Wow. I can't believe that its Wednesday again. I have been such a busy girl on my machine this week. DH worked 5 nights so there was lots of alone time to idle away on the machine. So I'm heading over to visit Lee for W.I.P Wednesday.

It felt so good to be back on my machine Friday night. After my week of feeling like crap (I had the flu), I wanted to just sew something up quick and easy to feel like I had achieved something.

Do you remember this? 

It was my Modern Mini Challenge that I made. Well I made another. This time I cheated by using strips of fabrics for the Octagonal Orb instead of squares and rectangles for a scrappy look. I also added some more borders to the octagon shape to make it bigger before the final borders. Here it is. 

Do you like my model?? She wanted to hold it up for me for the photo shoot. I used Kona Med Grey for the background and some Art Gallery fabric for the Octagonal rings and pink border. I loved how quick it came together. Not bad for an evening on the machine.

Saturday night was spent knitting. By the time I realised that I wanted to work on my machine, I didn't want to interrupt my DH's nap before work. So on Sunday I quilted this beauty. I quilted in straight lines and heavily quilted the Octagonal shape especially in the grey. I found a great matching cotton from Madeira for the quilting and so want to get more as this background color is my new favorite. I think I have caught the grey bug.

It was bound Tuesday night. Now I need to hand sew down the binding.Its going to a new home soon. A surprise. I will indulge further another time.

Also I've decided to give this one a new home too. A lovely lady across the road, lost her husband to cancer Tuesday week ago. It is very sad that she is all alone. I wanted to give her something to help her through this difficult time.

Monday and Tuesday evening was spent quilting this beauty. Some straight line quilting across either side of the seam and now I just have to finish by sewing on the binding.

We put our clocks back Sunday morning (3am) for daylight savings. Well living in my house, Master L was awake at 4:55am and Miss A at 5:40am. So much for the extra sleep time in our house. It hasn't improved much over the past few mornings either. I wake up in a world of black and watch the color changes through my kitchen window most mornings. I will enjoy my sleep ins when they are older if I'm lucky. More time for basting and sewing when they have a sleep this afternoon.

I am getting ready to piece together some HSTs for the Festival and work on my Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin. What are others up to over the next week?

I am also going away tomorrow and driving 6+ hours to visit a special friend, Simone to hang out and catch up. But the most important part is that I'm planning to have a continuous sewing party. We won't be able to sew all the time as our respective children will take priority and we have outings and activities planned, but I plan to sew with her as much as I can. If I don't link up with Lee next week and am not around much in blog land, its because I'm having too much fun.