And The Winner Of The Giveaway Is.............

Thanks to everyone who left comments for the giveaway.  I love being able to share part of my love of quilting with others.

I had 12 comments to the giveaway blog post.  I used the random number generator to pick the winner.  

And the first winner of the books and fabric quarters is:

Commentor number 8 Vicki H.  Vicki I have sent you an e-mail. Please send me  your mailing address so I can get your winnings in the mail to you.  Congratulations.

The second place winner of the 50 scrap rectangles or tumblers is:

Commentor number 2.  Quilting Tangent I have sent you an e-mail.  Please send me your mailing addressing so I can also get you your winnings in the mail.
Congratulations to both winners.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia
 

Cleaning Up In The Studio.......and It's Giveaway Time!!

I Just Love A Giveaway!!
 
Each time you clean up in your sewing spot or studio you find things that you haven't used in forever and don't think you are going to use them.  That is what is on my plate today. It has been a long weekend of being on call and being at the hospital many, many hours.  To de-stress I retreat to my studio.  Sometimes it is just to sit and read some quilting magazine, sometimes it is to clean off my sewing table (so I can see the top again).  But whatever I do it is relaxing to me and I love my studio.  I am blessed more than I deserve.

So in the spirit of giving I am going to have a giveaway.  So make sure that you let everyone know to come to the blog, leave a comment so you can be entered into the drawing.  I will draw a winner on Wednesday morning at 5:00 am EST using the random number generator and post the winner.  Please make sure that you leave me your e-mail address so that I can contact you for your winning prize.  Good luck to everyone.

I'm actually giving away a first and second prize.

First Prize will be:

• Book Perennial Patchwork by Jackie Robinson 
• Quilt Lovers Series Log Cabin #2 by Four Corners 
• Makin Muffins book by Susan Devins
• 10 Eight yard pieces of fabric

Second Prize will be:
Winner's Choice of one of the following:

• 50 - 3 1/2 inch Tumbler Pieces from Scraps

OR

• 50 - 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch Rectangles from Scraps

God has truly blessed me in my life and my quilting over the years and I would like to pass that blessing on to other quilters.  Good luck to everyone and don't forget to leave your comment to be entered into the drawing.

Using Prefused and Precut Fabric Pieces

Yesterday I showed how I used some selvage scraps to make a new piece of fabric, put fusible web on the back and cut it into a flower to use on a pincushion.  I have used this bin of prefused fabric many times in the past to add that extra "little something" to a quilt.

This quilt originally started from the 1600 Jelly Roll Race pattern and when I finished sewing the strips together it I felt that it needed something extra and wanted to redesign the quilt.  I picked some of the yellow flowers out of the bin and tossed them haphazardly onto the quilt and loved the water lily effect it had on the quilt. 

I appliqued the flowers on the top and felt like I was viewing a calming pond, hence the name.

So this bin of prefused fabric shapes has a place in my quilt studio.  I can mix and match the colors and shapes to make beautiful adornments to my quilts and projects.  I have some of the selvage pieces also in this bin to make flowers and centers for upcoming projects.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Making Items For Quilt Show Boutique

Each year at our quilt show we have a boutique with items made by our members for sell.  I have been collecting selvages to make some things with and this is what I have made this time.

This is my bin of selvages that I started with.

I made a piece of fabric by sewing these scrap selvages together.  I then fused wonder under fusible to the back of the new piece of fabric.

Now I used my Accuquilt Go Funky Flowers die to cut a flower out of that cute piece of "found fabric".  Remember this is what would have been thrown away when someone cut pieces of a quilt.

As you can see there are several pieces that are cut when you use the die.  I put fusible web on the back of the piece of fabric prior to cutting.  Then after I cut the pieces I can put them in my pre-cut bin of fusible "things" to use on quilts.

This is the bin that I can go to when I need a little extra "something" on a quilt.  I used the flower piece I cut to make this pincushion for the quilt show boutique and put the extra pieces in this bin to be used later.  They are ready to be appliqued onto a project when needed.

 

I think the pincushion turned out cute.  And I have more fun coming as my friend Suzanne brought me a bag full of selvages. 

Yeah for my bee friends, you rock!!

Happy Quilting,

Shelia 

 

Mom Has Been String Piecing Again

My mom, or the "energizer bunny" as we call her, loves to string piece and uses my scrap buckets to make beautiful quilts.  Each week when she comes over for Bee night she usually takes home a bag of scraps from the bins underneath my cutting table.  This is the view today of the scrap bins after cutting fabric scraps the other day into tumblers.

Mom will have a great time when she comes this week for Bee.  It always amazes me how beautiful a quilt that is made from scraps can be.  Mom has been working on quilts for her grand-daughter and her husband, also for her great grand son, and great grand daughter to give to them at Christmas.  She keeps me very busy quilting.  My mom will be 80 in March as out sews all of us girls in the bee.  I love that!!

Below is one of the quilts she string pieced using the bin of scraps.

I love seeing all of those fabrics floating in that quilt.  She used the floating 9-patch setting to set these string blocks.

 

I had fun with the quilting, freehand funky swirls.

 

She used telephone paper to piece borders and then cut them to the width she needed.

So as Bonnie Hunter always says, "scraps are worth as much as the whole fabric" which means if you paid $10 per yard for that fabric all of the scraps are still worth $10 per yard.  Mom is able to get multiple quilts out of the scraps that we put in the bins while cutting out other quilts.  

As we cut out pieces for quilts we are working on we put the larger pieces beside my Accuquilt Studio cutter.  We then take those pieces and cut into the scrap pieces in Bonnie Hunter's Scrap Users System Bonnie's System

Below is my bins with pre-cut fabric pieces ready to use in quilts.  I used some of the 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 pieces in the pink breast cancer quilt for Melissa.  It was quick and easy to go through the bin and pull out different pinks that I had cut from scraps.  It made piecing her border effortless.

 

After we cut as many pieces as we can for the system we put whatever is left into the scrap bins to be used in string quilts.  As awesome system of working to use every bit of fabric that we have paid for.  We definitely get our money's worth out of our fabric. 

Happy Quilting,

Shelia 

Identifying My Chickens.....The Egg Factory Workers

My little homestead family has grown this year as we added chickens.  I went in with some friends at work and we purchases a group of brown egg layers, some easter eggers and the hatchery threw in an extra something.  They are now 19 weeks old and I am trying to get pictures of each to identify each of the breeds that I now have.  Fun but confusing at times.  They each have such personalities as you will see with some of the names.

First we have Suzie (My Bee friend Susan picked her as her namesake) She is a Light Brahma, see the feathered feet.  She keeps everything stirred up in the coop.  She is a hoot!

Next we have Lucy.  She is also my little buddy.  She is a Delaware and Aurucana mix.

 

Then we have Reba (after Reba McEntire) she is a beautiful girl and follows me everywhere in the pen.  She is a Welsummer.

 

Next is the "Triplets".  These three girls are always together and I can't tell each of them apart.  So they are the triplets, Ashley, Doe, and Rae.  They are Columbian Wyandottes.  They are the first ones to get to worms when Roger tosses them into the pen.

Then we have Freida and Freckles which are Barred Rocks.  They are always at my feet, pecking me with "love bites" as Roger says.  And as you can tell they don't hold still for long.  Freida below jumped before the camera took the picture.

Caught Freckles with the next round of pictures.  Can't escape the camera girl!  Just check out that attitude.

 

Red is my Rhode Island Red.  She is a big girl, probably 6-7 pounds at least.  Heavy girl when I pick her up and lots bigger than the other girls.  I think she is my one who is laying now.

Then I have "Blackie" who is my Black Giant chicken, she is a beautiful solid black which just shimmers in the sunlight.  She just recently let me start petting her.

Dixie is a Red Star.  She is my jealous one as I have spent the most time with her.  She doesn't like me to have anything to do with the others.  She will actually come and head butt someone out of my lap.  What a girl!  She had just settled into her cool hole and was not coming out for the photo shoot.

Two Dark Cornish are beautiful girls.  Their feathers have a pattern that when the light hits it you see either brown in their black feathers or a turquoise.  It is wonderful.  The first two pictures are of Coco and her brown tint to her feathers.

Below is Teal the cornish with teal colored tint to her feathers.  She obviously did not want her photo taken.

I also have a Black Star who I am calling Star.  She is a quiet, shy little thing but holds her own at the fodder bowl.  She jumps right in to get her share every morning.  I had a great picture until "Dolly" hogged into the shot.

Now "Fuzz Butt" as I have called her since she was a peep was the fuzziest think in the box.  Cutie pie.  She is a Partridge Cochin, see the feathered feet.

 

And bringing up the end of the show are the two Araucanas or Easter Eggers.  They will lay blue/teal green eggs.  (that will be exciting to find).  These two have some real attitudes, but loving ones.  They have really filled out their beards and side burns as I call them.  The first is Dolly (Parton of course).  You see she is giving me a speech for taking her picture and not petting her.  I started calling her Dolly when she started singing along with me one day.  What a girl!

Up next there is Loretta (Lynn of course), she is talkative but not as much as Dolly.  She is my second Easter Egger and is a cutie pie.  No where near as "talkative" or bossy as Dolly.

So although it is not quilting related, this is part of my daily life now.  I am no chicken expert and I may have not identified each one appropriately, but have attempted to do so as accurately as I can.  Hope you enjoyed the tour of the Egg Factory here at our place.

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

 

Breast Cancer Warrior Quilt

One of my co-workers Melissa, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer so we decided to make her a comfort quilt to take with her to her chemo treatments.  I quickly pieced some signature blocks from my scraps at home and took the blocks to work so that everyone could sign them.

I had this beautiful tulip fabric in my stash for probably 20 years and have used it on many quilts and backings.....I loved it and I had just enough of the fabric left to use to cut the spacer blocks for Melissa's quilt.

All of the staff had a great time signing the blocks for her and I was able to get the top put together in a week and began the quilting process.

Don't you just love being able to go to your stash and pull together fabrics to make something to give comfort to someone?  It makes my heart happy that I can do such a small thing to bring a smile to someone's face.  Something that she can read and re-read to give her a beacon on light that everyone is praying for her strength and recovery.  God is good!

I also love readying all of the great things that people write on a comfort quilt.  
Below is the quilted and bound quilt awaiting it's trip to its new owner.

Below is Melissa receiving her quilt at her chemo treatment.  She was thrilled and spent the rest of the treatment time reading all of the blessings that people had written to her.

I am always amazed at how much God allows me to use my quilting passion to help others.  I am truly blessed.
 
Happy Quilting and many blessings to all,
Shelia

My Project Tonight......and Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam!!

Tonight for a change I will be able to join in on Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam.  Most nights I am not up late enough to be able to watch and listen as she quilts away on current projects.  But tonight I will be able to watch.  I have my laptop set up beside my machine and I have been cutting out pieces for my project to sew on during the quilt cam event.

Here is what I am cutting out:

 

These tiny blocks will finish at 2-inches.....Cutie pies.

 

I'm cutting them out of pink and brown fabric scraps that I have.  I need 32 blocks for the little quilt I'm making and I am trying to not have the same fabrics as either the brown or pinks.  Picking through a lot of scraps tonight....but such fun!

And below is the pile of scraps left from the scraps I've been cutting from....guess these will go back into the scrap bins for string piecing.  Never a dull moment or wasted fabric.

 Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Working In Scraps

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps everywhere!

I have this large black collapsible laundry hamper that I put scraps into, and my bee girls put scraps into also.  

Every now and then I take some out, iron them and cut them with my Accuquilt Studio cutter into pieces to be used in scrap quilts. 

Today one of the dies I am using is the Go Tumbler die 3 1/2 inch.

It is a process but it is very therapeutic to touch, iron and cut those little pieces of fabric.  Actually, history is relived as I remember where and when I came across each piece of fabric.  After all of this I am rewarded with a wonderful assortment of tumblers that can be made into a beautiful scrap quilt.  

Bonnie Hunter ( Quiltville Blog) is having a tumbler leader-ender challenge on her blog this year.  This basket will be a good start.  After just a little while cutting I have over 300 tumblers cut out.  Happy, Happy, Happy girl!

Happy Quilting,
Shelia