Happy 2014

2014 is here and I have a cold. It started on the last day of the old year, so I was hoping that it would be gone the next day. No luck there. New year, old cold. But I am much better today.
With the change on the calendar, I decided it was time to start new quilt top(s).
Always love to start new projects.
So, I will be making the Benjamin Biggs quilt as a BOM. This will be a 25 months project. See link below to see what it is all about.
 benjaminbiggs.blogspot.com

Benjamin Biggs quilt

I will also start to work on a couple of patterns I bought last year. Aunt Green quilt is high on the list. It is also a large top. I don't need any more large quilts. But I won't let that stop me from making them. More on this one when I get the background fabric.

2014 Sew Along Galore

It is that time of the year again. Not the eat too much time; but the new quilt for the new year time.
It seems that there are plenty of new projects to tempt everyone.
The very short list I made just now, includes new sew along from:
. Quilters Newsletter magazine: this one has started and it is a beautiful star quilt.
. American Patchwork and Quilting: it will start with the January/February issue that is already on sale.
. Pat Sloan has a free quilt pattern that will be a block of the month. "Globetrotting" will
star in January. http://blog.patsloan.com/page/4/
. Sentimental Stitch will also have a 25 months sew along starting January 1st. It is an applique quilt called "The Benjamin Biggs Quilt." It will be under the "just takes 2" site. Go to sentimentalstitches.net and take a look at this great applique quilt.
. Bonnie Hunter has her mystery quilt called "Celtic Solstice" going on. She usually keeps her patterns on her blog for a few months. So it gives you time to think about it and also see the complete quilt before you decide to make it.
Many other blogs have new sew along projects starting also. Many are free; but others have a fee.
Way too many to list. Just enough to keep one away from the sewing machine and glued to the computer screen.
Better get back to pins and needles now.
Many happy "starts!"

More of Festival 2013

More mix and match to show the diversity of beauty.

Houston Quilt Festival 2013

I took more than 100 pictures and I don't think it is even a third of the Festival.

Enough to say that there is something for everyone.

And a chance to shop until you drop!

Pinwheels and Posies

This cute store is located in Dickinson, Texas which is between Houston and Galveston of I-45. The service there is outstanding and they have a great selection of fabrics. I stopped there with some friends and we all found things we "needed."  For me, it was the orange and green batiks for the pumpkin shown on my previous post.

Quilt UFO's weekend.

This past weekend was used to finish some UFO's. I have started my version of Orca Bay when Bonnie Hunter did this as a mystery quilt (2011). 

I don't cut my fabric in strips to store it; and soon realized that it was more work than fun for me. So I stopped making the quilt, collected the clues; and put it all away with the fabrics I had selected. 

It turns out, I really liked the quilt. So, I cut the fabrics into triangles, and squares, did not do any more string piecing and put the top together for a twin size quilt. The red triangles and light blue squares are not string pieced  like the original clues.

This quilt is smaller then Bonnie's. I adjusted the border to this new size and now I plan to quilt it on my Bernina. I will give it as a gift to a family member.

"Orca Bay"

Orca Bay on my design wall

I also finished up this pumpkin quilt. 

The original design from Quilt Matters is called "Cheeky Pumpkin." It was offered as a free pattern on her blog quiltmatters.blogspot.com on October 21 2012. The original is the size of a sheet of paper 8.5" X 11" (A9 paper size for the ones overseas.) 

To make mine bigger, I did enlarge the pattern 200%. My quilt measures 21.5" by 18.5" which is 54.5 cm by 47 cm.

It is made of batiks and the pieces were fused using "Heat and Bond Lite." I did a small zigzag stitch (1 X 1) on my machine to applique this wall hanging. I also did machine quilting. The quilted leaf is an original. I also put a small leaf on the lower left using the purple thread, so it stays in the background.

Great Pumpkin

It was a fun weekend for sure!

Coolest office at Rice Univ.

 This is a very creative family. I went to visit DH in his new office at Rice University and have some coffee. We also decorated it a little bit. We found this "human alphabet" on the internet and I think it is really fun. His pictures for the walls are still on a box somewhere; but it is starting to look really nice.