A Special Treat and A Winner

This week I'm celebrating my one year blogiversary with some special posts and giveaways. I have experienced so much encouragement from many other bloggers over the last year. What an awesome bunch of people, I've found! So today, as a special treat for you, lovely readers, I would like to introduce you to a fairly new blog that you may not have run across yet. I first noticed Mary's wonderful quilts on flickr and now  Molly Flanders has quickly become one of my favorites! Here are just a few of Mary's fabulous quilts...........

Contemporary blocks in beautiful colors,

lovely fabrics,

classic style in fresh ways, 

creative ideas,

and no small amount of creativity flowing in every post...this is why I love

Molly Flanders!

When my Google Reader signals a new post, it's one of the first ones that I read. Run on over now and you'll see why!! 

And now for the winner of yesterday's vintage sheet giveaway.......

There were 79 entries. The winner is #26, Badlands Quilts. Congratulations, Karen! Send me your snail mail address and I'll be sending the fat quarters to you soon in the hopes that it will hurry spring to your area! Thanks to everyone who entered, for all the good wishes and visions of favorite flowers that you left for me. I'm ready to see them all blooming, aren't you?

Stop by tomorrow for another favorite blog visit and a new giveaway that you won't want to miss!

First Anniversary Giveaway

Daffodils are my favorite spring flower. I probably have 10 different varieties in my yard, planted by the previous owners.  When the slender leaves begin poking up their heads, I know that Spring is just around the corner! 

Hip, hip, horray!

The fabric above with the sweet daffodils is actually from a vintage sheet. Doesn't it just shout fresh beginnings! In celebration of one year of blogging and the fun I have had making new friends around the world through this awesome media, I would like to give this fat quarter and nine other vintage sheet fq's to one lucky reader.

I chose 10 fabrics with a similar color wave from my collection of vintage sheet fq's. Together, they would make a sweet quilt top for spring, perhaps.

To enter this giveaway, just leave me a comment telling me about your favorite spring flower. For a second entry, become a new follower or tell me that you already are one in a second comment. Two comments equal two chances! (Be sure that you have an email address listed in your profile to be eligible to win.) International entries are welcome.

I will choose a random winner on Wednesday morning.

Thank you, my lovely readers, for visiting my blog and reading about my passion for quilts and life.

You are the best!

*The giveaway is now closed and a winner has been picked.

Birthday Getaway!

Over the weekend, my daughter, Megan and I celebrated our birthdays which are exactly one week apart. She left her 2 1/2 year old and 7month old in the capable hands of their daddy and the two of us took off to Omaha, Nebraska for a couple of days of....well, mostly, shopping! Neither of us had spent any time in this small city which is 3 hours northwest of Kansas City. Mostly, we both just needed a change of scenery and some time to play. What a delight to find a quilt shop that carries some the prettiest contemporary fabrics I've seen together in one place.

Everything about this shop shouts COLOR....even the walls are painted bright beautiful hues to tantalize your senses.  If I lived nearby, I'd probably be dreaming about the fabric collection every night!

Of course, Megan and I couldn't pass up all this stimulation and left the shop with some lovelies! If you live anywhere near Omaha, you will want to put a trip to The Quilt Studio, on your list of places to visit!

To celebrate my birthday and Lollyquiltz's 1 year anniversary, I'm planning some special things this week, including some giveaways, so be sure to check back tomorrow to catch info about the first freebie!

The No Prints Allowed Challenge

The second Thursday of every month is a special one......it means it's time again for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I drive about 40 minutes one way to get there...that's how much I enjoy attending. I know there are members who travel even farther, including our president. It's pretty inspiring to be there every month. A record breaking 91 quilters attended last night!

 This month our meeting was especially exciting as we unveiled our projects for the No Prints Allowed Challenge. A few months ago we were each given a charm pack of Kona solids, generously donated by Robert Kauffman, and our challenge was to make a quilt using a piece from every charm in the pack plus any other solid fabric we wanted to add. Here is the quilt top that I created using a pastel color way charm pack plus Kona charcoal and white.

The block is called the Exquisite Block from Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking II. As you can see, it is just the top only as I didn't give myself enough time to get it quilted before the meeting. I thought it appropriate to photograph my unfinished quilt on my husband's unfinished garden shed that he has been working on since Thanksgiving for awhile now! (To be fair it has been snowing a lot...good excuse for the barn, but not the quilt!)

The pastels got a little washed out in the crazy sunshine, but hopefully you can get the idea. I first became infatuated with making a quilt like this exactly one year ago when I saw this one that Ashley was making at FilmintheFridge. I may not be very original, but I know what I like!

I used a folded one inch wide strip of white to add the accent flange and some dimension to the quilt.  I'll do a How-To post on that soon, in case you would like to try it. Wait. Can you even SEE the white strip in these photos? Trust me, each triangle has one!


I thought that you might like to see some of the other quilts that were made for the challenge, so go pour yourself a Pepsi and maybe even pop some corn.....there are not a few pics to follow ...just so you know!  Enjoy the show.................... 

Can you even believe all the talent in this group? And this is only part of what was shown! Now you can see why I never want to miss a meeting!

Spotty Hexagons Wordless Wednesday Again

Central Park

I ran into my local quilt shop on Friday afternoon to get some fabric to make another sleep sack. Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda met me at the door and I couldn't resist.The zoo animals will be so cute for a baby boy.  Egg Dots by Blank Quilting is the perfect coordinate, I think.

I found it interesting that the children's themed animal print is part of this collection, actually. It seems a little out of context with the pretty florals. But, that sure didn't keep me from picking three gorgeous colors of my favorite to come home with me!

Aren't they just beautiful? I wish that I knew what flower that is....anyone know?

Wobbly Windows Quilt

The sun was shining and the sky so blue that I couldn't resist getting out into the crisp air to take some pics of my rendition of That Girl's Quilt-Along quilt. 

 The last stitch in the binding was still warm when I put the quilt in my little PT Cruiser and drove down the road a few miles for some "destination photographs"! Taking the pictures is part of the fun for me and I love finding unique spots.

The  wonky square-in-a-square pattern looks a bit to me like windows with white trim on a beige house, so I named it Wobbly Windows. I love the reflection in the windows of the doors, don't you?

My organic quilting lines came out lots better than I had hoped.  Half way through the stitching, I was in a panic that I was ruining the quilt with each line that I added. I'm not very proud of the way the back of the quilt looks because of some thread tension issues, but after a run through the washer and dryer everything looks better! I'm partial to the puckery look.

The fabric in the "windows" is  Boutique by Moda. I used Kona Snow for the window frames and Kona Taupe for the background. The pattern calls for a charm pack of fabric so not having any yardage, I had to go on a treasure hunt for a half yard of Boutique to make the binding. Fortunately, I found some at my local quilt shop, but I'm glad I didn't wait too much longer or it would have been gone forever, I'm sure.

The back of the quilt is one big wonky square-in-a square with the center a multicolored swirly fabric that I found in my stash. The colors are the same so I thought it worked. I'm sorry now that I didn't take a picture of the back...you might be kind of sick of looking at the front by now! I took so much delight in doing this photo shoot that I'll just go ahead and show you one more ....... 

There was no one around to bother me so I got a bit carried away!

 Enjoy your Thursday!