November Friendship X and + Swap

Oh, it's so much fun swapping X and + blocks with Susan every month! Our Friendship Quilt is growing!! If you missed the guidelines for the swap and would like to join us, you can read all about it in this post. It's not too late; you can begin anytime! 

To refresh your memory, here's the Design Seed photo that we are using as our color inspiration for the blocks. Suz and I are taking turns choosing 3 colors to feature in the blocks each month.

For November, Susan chose fall colors of orange, brown and aqua. (Even though in Melbourne, where she lives, it is springtime!) We each make four different blocks plus  an identical twin set to send to the other. Here are my November twinsies...

Susan sent me these gorgeous blocks to mix in with mine!  I just love those orange ducks geese swans birds! (Whatever they are!)

Don't you think that our blocks play well together? Susan thinks my fabrics are more wild than hers...hmmm...I just am not seeing that!

We are up to 16 blocks now, with two months behind us. Our goal is to make 64 blocks for a lap sized quilt. 

Come back the last Friday in December to see what 3 colors I'm choosing for our next set of twinsies. But first, check out Susan's photos and post!If you are participating in the swap, please leave a comment letting me know how it's going as well as a link to your blog post. Here's the Flickr link if you'd like to see more pretty X and + blocks.

More swapping going on here:
http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/2013/11/friendship-block-friday.html
http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com/2013/11/friendship-x-and-swap.html
http://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/friendship-cross-x-block-swap-part-1
http://kristastitched.blogspot.com/2013/11/x-and-friendship-swap.html

Thankful

We Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November every year. But no matter where we live, it's nice to remind ourselves of all that we have been blessed with. As I make my mental list, I count blogging friends among my many pleasures! One in particular comes to mind today. Her name is Anna and she lives in the San Francisco area.

Anna and I don't correspond frequently, but when we do, I am always blown away by her sweet spirit and generosity. Last spring, she told me about a project that she was heading up to make quilts for some special ladies. She wondered if I would mind if she used my Liberated Cross tutorial as the basis for the blocks and the quilts that she had in mind. Of course, I was thrilled. If you are new to my blog, or don't remember (most likely!), this is the quilt that birthed the tutorial, Anniversary Crosses.

I

I had intended to use Anna's own words to tell you what she did with the 1250 cross blocks that were made by her and her friends and collected between April and October, but I accidentally deleted them! Ack! So, instead, I will direct you to the website for Freedom HouseSF. org. 
And here are the 24 beautiful quilts that were given to the Monarch house and newly opened Nest (for minors) to be gifted to the survivors of human trafficking as they endeavor to rebuild their lives in a safe environment. Thank you, Anna, and your friends for the love and hope that these quilts represent. 

Aren't they just gorgeous! These are not tiny quilts. What inspiration! My eyes well up.

I was able to find this final correspondence with regard to Anna's thoughts on the importance of this organization and it's mission, something most of us have little  knowledge of. Please read.

And now, thank you again for offering to post our quilts. As there are so many charities and needs to be fill in this world. The viewers have a chance to hear a calling to help survivors of human trafficking. If not in a direct way, they may look into and support an organization like FreedomHouseSF.org. We need to let the victims know, there are many of us in support of their journey to rebuild their lives. Sadly, we know there are so many more that are still held in bondage and cannot escape. For these fews escaped, may they find hope, encouragement and strength to rebuild.

I'm thankful for you, Anna.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Carla

Sunday Morning

"Trust in Him at all times,

O People;

pour out your hearts to Him,

for God is our refuge."

Psalm 62:8

I Love Color!

See! I just can't get enough of sewing on  my strip pieced spiderweb blocks. But, like a good girl, I put them away after every Tuesday Sewing Day with Vicki and just look at them until Tuesday rolls around again!

So, when I got the message that Rene' was wanting spiderwebs for her November blocks in the Mid-Century Modern Bee, you can imagine my delight!

She asked for a neutral center star and colorful strips. I used both 1.5 inch and 2 inch strips to make Rene's blocks. The blocks are made a little differently than the ones for my quilt, in that they are not foundation pieced. I like both methods, I've decided, but there is more waste of the neutral fabric with the Bee blocks. Here's how they are made. I'm mailing them to her separated so she can mix them in with the other members' blocks.

I laid Rene's blocks next to mine so you can get a reference of the size of spider that is spinning my webs!

 Four triangles together form a 12 inch finished block verses my 21 inch finished blocks. Obviously there are a bunch more rounds in my webs. Isn't it amazing how different it looks with a bright star verses a neutral star center?  I love them both! 

In other sewing, I'm trying hard to get the rest of my Juicy Fruit churn dash blocks made. (I'm wondering now, why I thought that a twin size quilt was such a good idea!) After mentioning to Suz that I was thinking of adding in some large 12.5 inch churns to the mix, she sweetly helped me out by making and sending me one! I plan to make four more  big old churns...that will save time as well as look awesome!

Thanks, my friend! I love it!! Oh, ya, I also decided to add some lemons in with the oranges, tangerines, watermelon and strawberries, did you notice?

Sunday Morning

"Now may the Lord of peace himself

give you peace at all times and in every way.

The Lord be with all of you."

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Friday Finish: Simply Modern Christmas Tree Skirt

Well, I'm finally able to mark one of the 3 projects off of this quarter's  Finish Along list! Remember, I had this tree skirt all but finished way back when! 

 It only needed to have the binding sewn on!

 I attached the binding before the KCMQG sewing retreat last Saturday and decided to be lazy  brave and sew it down by machine at the retreat rather than my usual hand sewn method. I figure even Santa won't bother to look at the back side to make sure that I caught every inch of the binding with the stitches!

 There are a couple of rough spots, but for the most part, it turned out pretty well. The backing fabric was on the clearance table at JoAnn Fabrics. I like it and think that it matches just great. I like to save where I can!

My goal was to have this ready by Thanksgiving and I made it by a couple of weeks. Yay!
Now, what's next on my UFO list?

Linda Hungerford (Flourishing Palms) and I had coffee this morning while she is visiting in KC. We each picked a number for the other to choose a winner in the Modern Baby book give-aways. Linda picked #14, which turns out to be Sheddy...someone she knows from Florida MQG. Congratulations, Sheddy. Please contact me with your address. (We actually had to pick a second winner because the first one was a no-reply blogger. Everyone, please check to make sure that you have an email attached to your name if you want comments on your blog and to win contests. Otherwise, there is no way to contact you!)

Here is a post on how to check for that  :http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-replypublic-service-announcement.html 

A Really Random Autumn Thursday

Autumn days are quickly turning colder and winter seems to be knocking on the door. Since I haven't done a random post in awhile, I thought that today I might give a glimpse of what I've been doing with my days: 

Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, and a baby Lady Bug invited me along while they rang doorbells and looked cute asking for handouts of candy.

Several lines of Bonnie and Camille charm packs all mixed together have made for some fun and easy quilty goodness.

Sewing the charms into groups of four gave me a starting point when laying them all out for a twin size quilt I'm making as a Christmas gift.

 After sewing together the rows, some hot pink paper helped me keep the rows in the right order while I pressed the seams. This just might be the easiest quilt that I've ever put together!

 Speaking of quilts, these big guys, who live down the road from me, are sporting some pretty fancy ones! 

 Have I ever shared that horses are my mostest favoritist animals ever?

 I think they like me too!

 Another thing that I like is finding a new place to shop for quilting fabric. This fun find is in  the small town of Jamesport. Jamesport is home to the largest population of Amish in Missouri.

I spied a few fabrics to add to my collection. One even found it's way into some Friendship x and + swap blocks I'm sewing....(show you soon!)

The colorful leaves were extra pretty around our yard this year.

But, the beauty is short lived and soon the branches were stripped bare. This will be my view out the window for the next four months.

Vicki and I are having a ball sewing spider-web blocks from scraps. Her string pieced blocks has an autumn feel to them.

My spiderwebs are more of the the summer variety...sunglasses needed!

Last weekend, during an all day sew-in with the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild I had a serendipity experience: Krista was getting out her cute little Singer Featherweight at the table directly behind me. She soon realized that she didn't have a pressure foot and so I loaned her an extra that I had in my Featherweight case. I noticed that she and I were both sewing up some X and + blocks, but didn't think much about it at first. After about an hour, I realized that Krista is part of the Friendship x and + Swap!

How fun to meet a virtual quilting buddy in person! I also love how quilting bridges the generation gap......Krista is young enough to be my daughter!

I"m linking up with Cindy at Live A Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday. 

Modern Baby Book Review and Give-Away

=Today, I want to introduce you all to a fun new quilting book full of adorable designs just for babies!

Modern Baby is a compilation of  original quilt patterns by 14 talented bloggers. There is a design for every skill level within the pages of this book. From my stash, I chose 3 solid fabrics from Connecting Threads, plus some Kona snow and a Moda Verna charm pack that I have had for several years.

 This cute, modern quilt design, by Jen Eskridge, caught my eye as a fast and easy pattern that looks more complicated than it is.  That's right up my alley!

After sewing fabric strips together, I folded and cut them at random, as instructed. Moving the pieces slightly, I re-sewed them to created the background for the quilt.

 After trimming and straightening the sides, my quilt top is ready for the fun part: hexies!

 Using a template, and 25 or so charms from the pack, I cut out hexagons and a facing for each from muslin. Sewing around each of the six sides of the hexies assembly line style went quickly.

 A quick press with a hot iron and my friend, Best Press, and the hexagons are ready to turn into appliques...

 The secret trick was to cut a little slit in the back of the hexie linings!
After turning them right-sides out, a porcupine quill (that's right, folks!) was the perfect tool to poke out the corners nice and square!

 As you can see, no one will ever know that there is a slit in the back once the applique is sewn down.

After another press, the beautiful hexagons are ready to attach to the quilt top!

 I chose to straight stitch around the edges with my machine, but other options could be used, such as a button hole stitch or hand applique.

 I must have rearranged the hexagons ten times before I finally told myself, "Stop! Sew!".

 The possibilities are many for this style of quilt. Next time, maybe I'll try an ombre gradation of color for the background and hexagons.

 Fractured Hexagons is a fun and easy pattern; definitely doable in a weekend or even a day with simple quilting added. 

There are 13 other creative designs in the book, many that I can see myself using over time for baby gifts. This one, by my friend Shea Henderson (Empty Bobbin Designs), is one of my favorites and would be equally as cute using prints.

 Or, how about this simple fusible applique Birdhouse Quilt design by Carrie Bloomston...

 I can see this sampler, by Sarah Flynn, being used as an I Spy game as well as a good way to teach the names of various shapes.

 With the last name of Timberlake, I am always drawn to tree shapes, so this fun design, by Carolyn Friedlander, may have to be added to my "To Do" list as a wall hanging!

 The straight forward directions, modern designs and quality photographs all add up to a book any quilter would enjoy! Shea has generously donated another copy to be given away to one of my readers! So, if you'd like to own your own copy of Modern Baby: listen up! 

For a chance to enter, just leave me a comment telling me your favorite shape.(USA readers only this time, please.) Be sure that you are not a "no-reply blogger" for a valid entry. A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday morning, November 15.

For a second chance to win a book, another quilt sample and more pretty pictures, visit Flourishing Palms!

The winner has been chosen and this contest is now closed.