Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Words of Live By Block 4 BOM

 

Hospitality


I'm a few weeks late on posting this but I am working on it!! :) I love how the wool is so easy to work with and how the patterned wool creates more added interest to the block. I have my first one almost done and quite enjoy the hand work. I wonder how easy it would be to do a buttonhole stitch on a sewing machine. If you have done it, leave a comment and tell us if it's any different with the wool and send pictures, we want to see!

 If you are just joining us, we are making Lisa Bongean's Words to Live By Quilt  - a block each month.  Lisa is the designer of Primitive Gatherings and has hand selected all of the wool and cottons for this BOM kit.

As Kristin mentioned this is NEW for both of us but we are really enjoying this beautiful pattern and fabric designed by Lisa. I have yet to try out the triangle pieces for the quilt. How are you coming on yours?

 

Here is a close up of my "Hospitality" after I embroidered it on my Bernina. I love doing this. This is one reason I bought my machine two years ago. I love to create!!

 

Here are all my pieces laid out on the wool. I had to lay all of the red flower buds pretty snug to get them all to fit on the red plaid, but there is enough. There is a little extra of the green that I saved for future use. YES, I am guilty of saving scraps!! Maybe not such a good thing, but you never know when you will need a scrap right??

One thing I really love about this process is that you don't have to be perfect on the placement. As long as you have enough for the seams going around the block you are good. I cut my fabric 13" so I can allow for any shift when I do my embroidery work. My block isn't perfect but these blocks are turning out beautiful! It's fun to pick up and work on.

You can find kits available on sistersandquilters.com. We thought the single blocks would also make beautiful pillows for those that don't want to adventure in making the full quilt. Send us a message if you are interested in purchasing any of the blocks separate.

HAPPY SEWING!!



Friday, May 9, 2014

Another favorite Customer Sharing Day!

Karly Nelson "I made my daughters dress out of the Nordika Whimsicol that I bought from your shop! Love it!!! We love it too Karly.  And your sweet daughter!  The skirt on this dress is a border print from Art Gallery Fabrics Nordika Collection designed by Jeni Baker.   CLICK HERE to visit the Paisley Roots blog.  You can purchase Karly's cute dress pattern.  Thank you Karly!

 Pearl Bracelets by Andover is another favorite basic from our shop.  Lynnette from redpajamas  shared this darling dress she created from the gold Pearl Bracelets print.  Lynnette and Vanessa have several sweet dresses to choose from in their shop.  We especially love the Glitz toddler dresses - perfect for weddings.  Thank you Lynnette - we love your clothing line!  You will want to visit their Etsy shop.


Jan Balls creates awesome quilts - and they are often for her loved ones!  Jan used a combination of several Art Gallery Fabrics for this fabulous star quilt.  Isn't this simply beautiful? Jan used the Flying Geese directions from our Apple Pie In the Sky Quilt Along to make the points on these stars.  Jan we just love this quilt!  Absolutely gorgeous!  The beautiful quilting was by Leisha Farnsworth of Quilting It.  

Pam Larsen made this darling baby quilt using the MINI Charms from the Ticklish Collection from Me and My Sisters.  These bright fun prints pop on this quilt.  Look close and you can see that you just line the 2 1/2" Mini Charms up on a background fabric and stitch them one.  Raw edges are part of the charm!  Thank Pam!  We love this bright quilt!

 Remember our Friendship Strips and Scraps swap?  1 1/2" strips of fabric.  Leisha created rectangle blocks with her strips.  This gorgeous quilt is definitely an heirloom.  Leisha provided a Quick Video Tutorial for this quilt.  You will want to watch it.  Don't blink!  Leisha posted this video on Jan 2nd.  CLICK HERE and scroll down to the 2nd of Jan.  So fun to watch this come together.  Thanks again Leisha for sharing your creative talents.

We just love this patriotic wall hanging designed by Carolyn Zilinski with the Freedom Stars fabric collection from Color Principle for Henry Glass Fabrics.   The pattern for the stars is from Carol Doak's Fifty Fabulous paper pieced stars.  Those star points are amazing!  Beautiful sewing Carolyn!  Thanks for sharing your talents with us.

 Lana of Lanners Quilts and Designs created this stunning Cat in the Hat Quilt.  These quilts are so popular for children - especially for Dr. Seuss reading days if your school has them.  We love the Character Stripe with Horton.  Fun Fun Fun quilt Lana.  Thanks for sharing with us!  By the way, Lana has another quilt and pillowcase for sale in her Etsy shop.


 Amanda Blythe created this darling little boys quilt from Tim Beck's Bungle Jungle.  These fun prints are perfect for your little ones.  Amanda this is such a sweet quilt!  We love the color/block pattern you created.  And....

Amanda created this sweet quilt with a variety of fabrics and white.  Don't you love this pattern - Love Letters.  Look at the little envelopes.  So Cute.  Surrounded by Love pink Fireworks print is the border.
Thank you Amanda!  We love these quilts.  Keep sending us pictures!


Remember Apple Pie in the Sky Quilt Along?  Some more pics are coming in...


 LaReen Zollinger is always creating beautiful quilts.   She added to our Apple Pie in the Sky Quilt Along Blocks to make this sampler quilt for her daughter.  So so wonderful!  We are in awe.  She used the fabric line Midwinter Reds by Minick & Simpson.

To see more pictures of LaReen's heirloom quilt CLICK HERE to go to Leisha's quilting facebook page.  Scroll down to April 12th and see many of the blocks individually.  You will fall in love with this quilt. As always, great quilting designs Leisha!



And Leisha also added a few blocks to her Apple Pie in the Sky quilt.   Leisha combined Indigo and Independence Trails, both designed by Minick and Simpson.  We love these soft blues and tans combined.  Beautiful quilt!  We will post more pictures when Leisha quilt it.  Thanks again Leisha!



And to finish with inspiration......
Julia Snider Malone along with Susane Snider Smith created this amazing quilt from our Apple Pie in the Sky Quilt Along.  Don't you just love the value words embroidered on each block?  Great idea! This quilt inspires me.
I thought I would share with you her touching story....


"Dear Sisters and Quilters,

I would like to share with you the story of "The Values of Medicine" quilt. I was asked by my niece, Susanne Snider Smith, to make a quilt, a birthday gift for her boss, Dr. Lawrence M. Lesser, a cardiologist in Snellville, GA from all the ladies in the office. The words on the quilt represent the things Dr. Lesser has taught them.

 Suz knew she would need nine blocks for the words, and somehow find a way to add 4 pictures to the quilt. We searched the internet for ideas and had just about decided to give up and just make a nine block quilt with pictures for 4 of the cornerstones. I had never made an "on point" quilt before and when I first saw the pics of "Apple Pie in the Sky", I was mesmerized! It's beautiful! And the perfect number of blocks for our quilt! Susanne was thrilled with the design... we would just embroider the words across each block rather than our original plan of applique. Perfect, since I do machine embroidery professionally. We picked our fabric colors and I started the quilt using your blog as a guide. I chose the blocks that seemed to work well with our plan, put lighter colors to the center of the blocks and embroidered the words in crimson to represent blood and the heart. My boss (I work for a sporting goods store) sublimated the pictures to polyester fabric that I used to create the picture squares. I made the strips and cornerstones and put it together. I added 3 embroidered inscriptions to the back of the quilt. One with Dr. Lesser's name and birth date, one from the girls in the office, and a "made by" from me and my Suzie Q.  I quilted it using an industrial embroidery machine. 

This has absolutely been one of the best projects I have ever been involved in, and I am so proud of this quilt!"

Julia - we love this quilt!  What a wonderful gift!  Thank you for sharing your talents and kind heart!
  
               

Thank you everyone for sharing your talents with us!  You amaze us with your creativity and love for your art.

Remember.....

Today is Fat Quarter Friday!   Join us each Friday as we post a surprise fat quarter for you to add to your order at significant savings. Offer good while supply lasts. 



This week's fat quarter is C4504 Daydream Tomato Trellis designed by Samantha Walker for Riley Blake. Fat Quarters are 18" x 20/22". A great coral red print.  CLICK HERE  to get your FQ.



Previous weeks Fat Quarter Friday picks - we still have a few left!  The Luna II white/brown geometric print would be great for your low volume stash.