Christmas Quilt Along

Welcome to the second month of the Christmas Quilt Along. Today's hostess is Joanna at Needle Thread Happiness. Gosh, she is almost a neighbor! Morning Joanna!! We will be starting to put some of those cut pieces together today. Now you don't have to make the Festive Mystery quilt, grab a Christmas project and sew along with us. I will be using this one blog post for all updates thru the day, so stop back occassionally.

UPDATE

Joanna asked us to share our favorite 60's song or group. I loved the Beach Boys and remembered "Little Saint Nick" - The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson wanted his own Christmas classic. "Little Saint Nick" was released in late 1963 and has been a holiday favorite ever since.

UPDATE

Oh, my , my, - I get to chain my heart out!!! This part should go quickly, and IF I am careful with my 1/4" seam, shouldn't take much trimming up.

UPDATE

I have all my 4-patches finished, trimmed and ready to put in their labeled baggy. I have some errands to run in town and then run the vac to pick up all those threads/trimmings. Then I'll play with my little project until my grandsons come to visit.

UPDATE

Well, the mini base is finished. Now to look for my wools, decide what I want to put in my snowy country window, and then do some applique. Then a little embellishing, stitching, etc.... Gee, I'll have my December Ackfeld hanger mini done! My grands tired me out, so a little nap, dinner, and then I need to sandwich out a quilt. See ya all tomorrow!

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Cherry Christmas

A reminder that this Saturday is the Christmas Quilt Along. The Fiestive Mystery Quilt can certainly be done in any fabric/color and we are just getting into the first block construction so don't feel like you are too far behind to join in. OR join us with some other little giftie project. This month's Quilt-A-Long hostess will be Joanna at Neelde Thread Happiness. I have my quilt fabrics cut and ready and a small project on the side.

And 'Made in Cherry' is officially finished. I chose to use 2" scrappy red squares and machine quilted with a diamond cross-hatch. I used a craft weight felt for batt - spritzed with water and hot air dried to shrink - then ironed to felt. This is one wallhanging that 'hangs straight'.

I used a Windham reproduction for backing and same for binding. This will be entered in our quild show and hopefully in our regional Quilter's Hall of Fame show (by invite). (32" square)

Traveling Stash Updates

Box #1 - Samantha just received the box and should post this weekend so it is up to you to watch for her post
Box #2 - is now moving on to Diane at From Blank Pages

Box #3 - no activity change

Box #4 - Jennifer is holding comments until Sat March 10th midnight

Box #5 - Pass it on Box - Sarah is holding comments until late Thurs March 8th - hurry on this one

Box # 6 - no activity change

I have 12 other projects on the go, but not going to show bits here today - my house is a shambles!! A lot of projects to finish by the end of this month - a lot of my side buttons will be coming down at the end of the month - BUT I have a list of new ones that will be added for April. Hope you are progressing (and joining in) with your Bingo Cards - more prizes have been donated. Selina thank you for your triangle trims - I am already sewing them up tonight - just had to play with them!

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

National Crafting Month

March is National Craft Month. About 56 percent of U.S. households include a person with a passion for crafting, according to the Craft and Hobby Association. Here are five facts about crafting:

1. Woodworkers spent the most on their craft, about $3.3 billion in 2010, according to the Craft and Hobby Association's Attitude and Usage Survey.
2. A product called Kodak Shoe Art Film by a company called Shoe Attitude won the innovations showcase best-of-show competition at the Craft and Hobby Association winter show. The product allows people to customize shoes made of leather, canvas or synthetic material with ink-jet printed images.
3. Food crafting, which is ranked among the top pursuits, includes cake decorating, cupcake decorating, candy making, gingerbread house making and other edible crafts related to holidays, birthdays and celebrations.
4. 14 percent of U.S. households are home to at least one active quilter, according to Quilting in America 2010, a statistical report. The number of quilters is down from 2006, but spending on quilting is up.
5. Women are the majority of those pursuing four out of five of the top craft segments.

I plan on doing my crafting with this little goody bag that was dropped off at my house the other day. Yes, I get from little baggies right up to lawn/leaf bags of scraps. But this one is delightful! Alexander Henry, Windham, RJR, NorthCott, Prim wools, plaids, shirtings - oh, my heart flutters.

The first thing I pulled was some reproduction prints to use in the new mini by Temecula Quilt CO - the same ones who offered the 12 Days of Christmas sampler. I have the little basket button on my side bar. A block each Thursday thru the month of March, easy peasy. This could be used in Barbara's new Doll Quilt Swap.

I am putting the finishing touches on the Bust Yo Scraps quilt. I only had enough of this white (and we know not all whites are the same) and if you look close you can see where I pieced the one border to use what I had. I am browsing my stash to put another border and then ready for quilting. The original pattern used 8.5" snow balls and 2.5" squares - mine are 4.5" snowballs and 1.5" squares. **will link up to Patchwork Times design wall** and at some point it will be quilted with the new SewCalGal FMQ Challenge for the month.

More crafting on Cherry. I give you permission to knock me up side the head if I ever think of doing 1" cross hatch ever again!! Slow going, but almost done. Then the binding. Thank heavens I did this with smaller size squares - will be a 32" square wallhanging. I can't imagine doing a large quilt with this type of quilting!

My Pioneer Friendship Quilt is finished. I call it that, even though you folks will identify it as the 'granny block' - because it is not a granny block. I really had trouble with jumping in on this as I knew something was wrong. It is my nature to research history of fabric, patterns, and blocks and I knew I had seen this before. So to the best resource - my MOM. She knew immediately and we pulled 3 of her books and 2 of mine - it is an ALBUM block - sometimes called the Chimney Sweep Block or the Pioneer Friendship Block. It is usually made with a muslin center so a bible verse, prayer, or name can be added. The rest of the block uses little fabric so easy for adding what was on hand at the time. Then the community ladies would 'bee' to put the blocks together, tie off the quilt with 'prayer knots' and gift to a new family in the community. My resource book was 'Better Homes and Gardens' 501 quilt blocks (album blocks section) copyright 1995 - exact directions and cutting. As much as I love seeing a lot of quilters enjoying a process - please educate yourselves and give proper credit where due.

We are tickled pink to see Bingo Cards starting to pop up around the web. Kim at KimsCraftyApple gave me permission to link her post on her card. Just to give you some inspiration. I would be happy to link a post if any one would like to show their progress. And I have had some questions on not having novelty prints, what to do. Oh, go look over your fabrics my dears - with a much closer, loving eye. Polka dots, stripes, sure you have all kinds of florals (roses, daisies, tulips, pansies), circles, squares, maybe there's a hidden butterfly, look at those fall fabrics - leaves, acorns, christmas fabrics - candies, gingerbread men, deer, santa - just look with a different eye. This is meant to be fun - not stressful.

Quilt Gallery will be hosting a St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop. Go here for information and sign-up. I will be passing on this one - as a participant and hopper, as I have a lot on my March crafting plate.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Try not only to set some crafting time for yourself, but to share it with someone else. I plan on having some small craft items to share with my grandson when he visits - I love that he is now old enough for this kind of fun.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Updates and Winners

TRAVELING STASH

Box #1 - Samantha - Quazy Quilter - no word

Box #2 - Lindsay - Lindsaysews - comments open until March 6th

Box #3 - Traveling to Martha - Living Life

Box #4 - Jennifer - Knotted Thread - no word

Box # 5 - Traveling to Sarah - Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Box #6 - (new box started with Leap Day Blog Hop) traveling to Linda - Stray Stitches

BINGO

Prizes are listed over at Tonya's - Hillbilly Handiwork

Remember, in order to participate in the May For Me Bingo, you will need a Bingo Card and it will need to be linked up when opened. We will all be giving you updates and gentle reminders as things roll along.

WINNERS

Did you catch the charms in the beginning? Well I was overwhelmed with the number of comments, we had our first snow storm here in the North East, I picked up a lot of new followers, and heck I just feel like it. I decided to double-down my give away. Yes, another set of charms: Domestic Bliss paired with a red Bella solid.

Marlene - Stitching By the Lake and Lesley - The Cuddle Quilter will receive the "Sassy bundle and Susan - Hanging on by a Needle & Thread and Richard Healey - Richard Quilts will each receive the Domestic Bliss bundle.

And for those who think I have sponsors - NO - I either have it in my stash or purchased specifically for a give away, but more importantly it is from my heart. I will be sending each winner a personal e-mail for information and I thank all of you for participating.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon