Finish It Up Friday ~ Christmas Pillow

We’ve so enjoyed an extended visit from Daughter #2. It will be hard to see her leave tomorrow . But I will hold onto the memories and be thankful for this time. Since she won’t be here at Christmas, she received her Christmas gift early.

Having it sent here meant that we could have a play date in the sewing room. She wanted to work on Christmas pillows so we did. She found a photo on Pinterest of one she liked. She used my leaf die and Accuquilt Studio Cutter to cut out the leaves. She used a glue stick to hold the leaves in place and just stitched down the middle of each to keep them dimensional. She used some of my hand dyed fabrics so there is no right or wrong side. She hand stitched the buttons in place. Isn’t it beautiful?

She will add a pillow form when she gets home. I took inspiration for my pillow from this gift bag she bought for me at Bath and Bodyworks.

I traced the pieces onto Heat N Bond Light and fused the design down. Then I straight stitched near the edge of all the pieces.

I love my pillow! Mostly, I love it for the memory of a rare day in the sewing room with my girl.

Have a great day!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Busy Hands Quilts , Confessions of a Fabric Addict , Sew Can She

Posted in Crafty Things, Finishes | 16 Comments

Thankful

This past year has been one of the most stressful of my life. And yet, I have so very much to be thankful for.

I got to spend several months with my precious grandsons in Arizona.

Beautiful Daughter #2 came home safely from Iraq.

I got Oscar!

Daughter #3 married the love of her life.

I have smiled until my face hurt at the antics of these two little boys.

My dad met Jesus face to face. He’s finally free from pain. I sat up with him all night before he left us. It was the sweetest time and I’m so thankful for being able to spend those hours alone with him.

Two days later, my sweet father in law joined him. I’m pretty sure they had a nice visit over pie.

I have traveled more miles this year than ever before, mostly to Wisconsin to help my parents, but also to Missouri and Arizona. I’ve enjoyed having my kids home for visits. I’ve had adventures with this guy.

There have been glorious moments and heartbreaking moments. Through it all, I can say with all certainty, that God is good.

I am thankful.

Posted in Life, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Christmas Quilt Progress

The top went together pretty quickly. Now it’s on the frame.

I love the accuracy of my Accuquilt dies! Most of my intersections came out really well and I didn’t pin anything.

My binding is ready so I best get to quilting!

Don’t forget that you can find all the Accuquilt Black Friday deals here.

Have a great day!

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Remember when…..

…..I was working on the last Humble Quilts mystery, Palmateer Point? I had made all my four patches from a charm pack and I hated how it looked.

I ditched the four patches and ended up making this.

But you may wonder what became of those four patches? I gave them away to Barbara from A Joyful Journey. And she turned them into this!

Isn’t it lovely? Making these blocks and seeing what someone else would do with them was more fun than using them myself!

Daughter #2 is still here, though her BF flew home last Thursday. It has been a joy to have her home for an extended period of time! Daughters #1 and #2. And I had a girls night out last Friday.

Saturday morning, Daughter #3 showed up. We had fun hanging out and putting up Christmas decorations. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos except for this one. Little E, who is very stingy with kisses, decided to kiss all the angel ornaments on the tree!

Have a great day!

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Christmas Quilt with Accuquilt Nested Dieso

Since I was cutting out a quilt with my nested dies, I thought I would show you all how they work. When you purchase a set, you get one set of nested dies with blades to cut multiple sizes. And one set of blanks.

You remove the piece with the blade that is the size you want to cut and swap it out with one of the same size in the set of blanks. Like this:

I have a set of triangle dies that work the same way. I used them to cut pieces for Daughter #1’s Christmas quilt. Here was my first arrangement. It seemed pretty busy.

I liked this one better and added the greens along the sides as a border.

It’s still very busy, but I’m going with it!

You can check out all the latest deals from Accuquilt here. The Black Friday deals have already started! And they have really great deals this time. The GO! Big cutter is only $399! And all GO! dies are 20% off. Don’t forget there are free patterns as well right here.

Have a great day!

Linking up with Cooking Up Quilts , Love Laugh Quilt , Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

This post contains affiliate links.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Another QOV

Here is the next in this month’s batch of a QOV Quilts. I believe this top was made by Nadine.

I used a pantograph called EZ Lacy Loops.

And the next one is on the frame!

Daughter #2 is still here, but since she has a full load of online classes, she has homework to do. Mr. Wonderful has been in China this week so that means I’ve been able to sneak in some quilting time.

Have a great day!

Posted in Finishes, Pantographs, Quilt of Valor | 7 Comments

Eagle QOV

I met one of our newer members of the Stitching Sisters QOV group at our last meeting. Candy’s very first quilt was a QOV and she presented it to a vet! She had another top ready for me to quilt. Here it is:



I used a panto called Eagle’s Landing.


Nice work, Candy!

Have a great day!

Posted in Finishes, Quilt of Valor | 3 Comments

Finish It Up Friday ~ Snowball QOV

I think this might be my favorite QOV that I have made.

I started out with a layer cake that I bought with a gift certificate from Mr. Wonderful. I added some fabric from friends Zenia and Ila, and this panel from Barb V.

The backing was also from Ila. It was so perfect for this top!

Thanks to my friends for adding their bits and pieces to this quilt! I was so happy that I could go to the Stitching Sisters Sew Day last Saturday. These ladies are just the best! Here are some pics from our presentations on Veteran’s Day.

All of these veterans have received QOVs from our group.

I presented my quilt to Bud, a Navy vet that served during WW2. He worked on troop transport ships in the Atlantic.


Here’s a pic of some of our group.


It was such a wonderful time. I love this organization and my Stitching Sisters!

Have a great day!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts , Busy Hands Quilts , Confessions of a Fabric Addict , What a Hoot Quilts

Posted in Finishes, Quilt of Valor, Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Finish It Up Thursday!

Here are the two finished quilts I mentioned yesterday. They were gifts for a brother and sister. I had already given baby quilts to their little brothers and thought these older two would enjoy cuddle quilts too.

This first is for a Star Wars fan. I cut 8 1/2 inch blocks from 15 different Star Wars prints and added the sashing.


I quilted with a large meander. I used a low loft poly batt and polar fleece for the backing.

I’m not totally happy with these due to the backing, but they are cuddly!

This one is for a little girl that loves Disney Princesses!

I turned the backing to the front and zigzagged it down for a self binding.

Their mom sent me these pics of the sweeties enjoying their quilts. The one in the middle has received his earlier.


Such a great family!

Have a great day!

Posted in Finishes, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Sashing and Cornerstones

I worked on a couple quilts that were gifted last week so now I can share them. Today I thought I would show you how I put this simple quilt together. I hate sewing long rows of sashing, so I almost always add cornerstones. Then I make uneven four patches, like this.

Then I rearrange them until I’m happy with the layout.


Finally, I add the missing bits to the top and side blocks and then sew it all together as usual. 


Tomorrow I will share the finished quilts.

Have a great day!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments