Happy Surprise

I love a surprise! A Disappearing Nine Patch quilt offers just that. The surprise comes when you cut up  basic nine patch blocks into four equal pieces and then twist and turn those smaller blocks to create a more interesting quilt top. It's a quick and easy quilt to make, perfect for a baby quilt. Here's the quilt top I put together in just a few hours, using Jennifer's great tutorial.

 The fabric itself, called Happy by Me & My Sister Designs , was a surprise gift from The Old Country Store in the Lancaster county village of Intercourse, PA. The Old Country Store was chosen as one of the 10 best quilt shops in the US by Quilt Sampler magazine and houses a quilt museum on the second floor of their historic building. Their Online Fabric shop is well stocked and the prices are very competitive.

I'm adding the Old Country Store to my online shopping mall! The nice folks at the store sent along a little something for you too.........so check back tomorrow for the scoop.

QADD

I'm pretty sure I have it.  You know, Quilting ADD. The main symptom is hopping from project to project...starting something, putting it aside for something else. Yep.  I have it.  Last night I unearthed this project from a basket in my sewing closet...........

 Since I made a note on the page for the pattern, I know exactly when I started this Christmas quilt.  January 2008.  I remember that the Christmas charms and jelly roll were on sale after the holiday and I fell for them. I cut out the blocks, sewed some and set it aside.  Then, before Christmas 2009 I sewed some more....set it aside.  Here's where I'm at in December 2010...the blocks are already all pieced!  I'd apparently even laid them out in a pleasing arrangement, because each row of blocks was pinned together and numbered. All I have to do is sew these together into rows, sew the rows together, quilt it and I've got a new Christmas quilt.  Keep your fingers crossed!

 I've had a request to see the back of the Peppermint Delight quilt, so I took a picture. This fun fabric in pink, red, green, grey-blue and white was the inspiration for the color scheme.

It's an Alexander Henry fabric. Isn't it delightful!

Cover Girl

One of my quilts has been given a special compliment....a month long spot as a cover girl!! Well, kind of, anyway.  If a blog can be seen as a magazine, the blog banner as it's cover,  and if a quilt can be seen as a cover girl, then that's the deal!

Remember Peppermint Delight? That's her in the photo above.  Well, I entered her picture into a contest for a spot on the December banner at Stash Manicure. I was so excited to learn that she had won! She's got good company, too.  I hope that you'll hop on over to pay her a visit and check out the other four  bathing quilting beauties. It's a swell blog whose main purpose is to share ways to organize your stash and use it successfully. There's always a good idea being featured!

Hope Valley Flimsy

 The hexagon quilt top is all put together.  Yay! !  As you can see, I couldn't stop making those six sided deelies and added some one inch hexies to the border. I think they look like gum balls! Sort of.

 Now to decide how to quilt this fun top.  I don't want to mess it up. Any ideas? Do you think adding the straight-line quilting that I like so much would look good? I really want to love it!

Today, I finished up a couple of blocks for Heidi in the Nittany Block Party.  She provided the fabric and this interesting pattern called  Zig Zag Path. I can't wait to see the finished quilt.

Wordless Wednesday for Turkeys

Scrappy Bee Blocks

Last evening, I spent some time in my sewing room turning out some easy Square- in- a Square blocks for Hannah's month in the KCMQG Scrappy Bee. 

 Hannah requested the blocks to be 10 inches finished, with no more than three rings. 

  Hopefully, her request that the blocks not be "wonky" does not include "off-center" because that's certainly the way this one turned out!

Hannah included the grayish-tan snowflake fabric and asked us to use our stash to create blocks in a lovely grey, yellow, white and light blue color scheme.  It's going to be a wonderful quilt, I think!

 Have you seen this magazine in the stores yet? I tried hard to win one during all the recent give-aways but, sadly didn't. Instead, I picked one up on a recent trip to a quilt shop. There are some fun blocks inside to tempt you....if you need tempting, that is!

 This one caught my eye.  I've been seeing pod shaped blocks all over the Internet lately.

 Here's another using curve shapes.  As you know, I'm being drawn to faux circles lately!

And, if you've been collecting selvages, here's a charming block that would be fun to create.

But don't spend all your days inside sewing. Be sure to enjoy these last days of autumn. Winter's on it's way and the leaf angels will soon turn to snow angels!  

The Quilt Cupboard

Our house is designed with a very open plan and tall ceilings. I've been wanting to find a taller than average piece of furniture to put against the wall near the television to balance out the decor. If I could find something that would also be fun for storing quilts, that would be an added bonus. Last week, after stopping at the DMV to get new tags for my car, I decided to visit an antique store across the street. Right inside the door, I saw this....................................

The conversation across the dinner table that evening went something like this: "Honey, I saw something today that I thought you and I could get each other for Christmas... maybe even early. I think you would really like it and it's something you've been wanting, I know!"


Well, long story short, when we got up Saturday morning, my sweet husband suggested that we go to the antique shop and take a look at that thing HE had really been wanting! By the end of the day it had come home with us and taken up the blank spot on the wall next to the TV. It took some elbow grease to liven up the dry wood with Howard Restor-A-Finish, but now it's true beauty is shining through. The handmade cupboard was built with several quirky details making it a perfect fit of this nut house.


    

Open the door, and it's all decorated for fall.  I'm pretty excited about having a way to display quilts though out the year.  My honey is really excited about it too..at least he pretends so shockingly well!  

That's one Christmas gift marked off the list.  I love to get him just what he's been wanting!