Allietare Assembly Underway!

The big reveal of this year's Bonnie Hunter's mystery Allietare arrived on New Year's Eve and the quilt is spectacular!  This is shaping up to be the favorite of the 4 I've made so far.

I've been making roughly 1/3 of the clues each week.  It was so much fun to assemble as many of the blocks as I could with the pieces parts already on hand.  The quilt is set on point and there are two main blocks plus a border block.

Based on the layout I've chosen (quilt will finish roughly 70'' square), I need 16 of this first block.  I had enough piece parts to make 10.

And I'll need 9 of this second block.  I had piece parts to make 5 so far.

I've not starting assembling the quilt top yet - want to finish all my blocks first - but I did lay everything out on my design floor.

Isn't this just a great design?

I have enough fabric on hand for the quilt size I need except for the black.  I'll need some for the 5'' border and for the binding.

I can't wait to go explore all of the other quilts from the link up here on Bonnie's blog.

On a different topic, have you chosen a word (or phrase) that becomes your focus for 2016?  Join me in putting that word onto fabric - anyway you want! - and then share it and join my linky party!

There is terrific sponsorship from Chalk Lots and Green Fairy Quilts with prizes to be awarded (randomly) to participants!   

Come join the party!!

And speaking of parties ......

Heidi from Red Letter Quilts is starting a new monthly goal setting party.  I've always found great motivation in these so will be joining and linking up here.  My goal for January will be to get the blocks all assembled and sewn together.

I'll also be joining these fun lnky parties at  Blossom Heart Quilts,  Sew Fresh Quilts and Freemotion by the River.


            

And if you've read all the way to the end (thank you!), here is one more photo of my Allietare quilt.

Happy Stitching!

ALYOF - 2015 finishes inspired by a linky party!

I love setting goals.  I am motivated by declaring the goal out loud and then holding myself accountable for that goal.

Sound familiar?  Do you work the same way?  That is why this blog is so very important to me.  I document it for myself - kinda hold myself accountable.  But I get so much positive feedback and encouragement from others, that even not finishing is also ok.

For 2016, I choose a word for the year - Discover.   I blogged about it here.

I'm very excited about it.   Do you have a word - or a phrase - that will define 2016 for you?
Join me in putting that word onto fabric - anyway you want! - and then share it and join my linky party!

There is terrific sponsorship from Chalk Lots and Green Fairy Quilts with prizes to be awarded (randomly) to participants!

   

Come join the party!!

For the last several years, a major source of inspiration to get to a finish for me was the monthly Another Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.

At the beginning of each month, you set your goal and then blog about your finish at the end of the month and join the party. Shanna and Melissa have done a terrific job hosting this party month after month.  Thank you both for all of your cheer-leading and encouragement!

This week is the final party celebrating our 2015 accomplishments (linking here).  (Sadly, it is also the final ALYOF party.)

I participated 11 of the 12 months but choose to make my mosaic of the 9 finishes - quilt tops in some cases, quilts in others - that were my ALYOF goal.

Row 1:  Snapshots (Dec), Holiday Wishes (Nov), Pretty Puppies (Oct)

Row 2: Peanuts Gang (Sept), Summer Stars (Aug), Hello Moon (June

Row 3:  Farmer's Wife (May), Elmer (April), Grand Illusions (March)

Thanks again to Shanna and Melissa - you've been terrific party hostesses!


Happy Stitching!

Snapshot complete!

Finished my Snapshot quilt top this week!!

First I had to finish the last block - I left the wine glass off - not because I don't enjoy wine (ahem, I do!) but because I just couldn't find the fabric combination I liked.  (Of course as soon as it was complete, I found something that would work)   Indoor photo - color isn't right.

What do you think?

I've no idea how to quilt this one.  I usually take quilts this big to my great LAQ but I may attempt to tackle this one myself.

Overall this was a really fun QAL - thanks Fat Quarter Shop!

Final block is available here.

You can find more information on the Fat Quarter Shop page.  Besides the fun of building the quilt, this is all about donating to St Jude.



This was my 4th finish from a QALin 2015 - the other three (with links to posts with more infor) are: Elephant Parade, Puppy Parade and Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Mystery Grand Illusions.



Making the final block and assembling the Snapshots quilt top will be my December goal.  Link to my goal setting post is here.    I'll be linking at Another Lovely Year of Finishes.   I'll also be linking up at Blossom Heart Quilts and Sew Fresh Quilts.

            

Happy Stitching!

Holiday wishes

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  Ours was wonderful and relaxing and there was some time to sew!

First, a finish - 

I made this mini using this free paper piecing pattern.   I fussy cut the geese so that each of the 12 Days of Christmas are front and center.

Once this mini was done, I was ready to start a smaller project so found a whole box of scraps and starting creating mittens!

This fabric is from a Kate Spain line from a few years ago.  I won a giveaway on her blog and the prize was a 20 lb (yes!) bag of fabric scraps.  I used some of them right away and then spent time this weekend(finally) cutting them into pieces good for the mitten block or just some 2 1/2 '' strips.  Gonna have some fun!

 Finally, did you take advantage of any Black Friday fabric shopping?  I know I managed to add some things to my stash - some AMB solids in yummy colors.  Can't wait for them to arrive.

There are a bunch of Cyber Monday sales out there and I wanted to pass on the deal from one of my sponsors - Fat Quarter Shop sale on precuts runs through Tuesday, December 1 (midnight)!

Making my min quilt Holiday Wishes was part of a monthly sewalong called Mini Quilt and More hosted by Sherri from A Quilting Life and  Michele of Island Life Quilts .  There will be a parade of minis next week so I'll perhaps be inspired with other fabric combinations.   Finishing this mini was also my November goal for ALYOF.  (Goal post here.)   You can check out more information on ALYOF on Sew Bitter Sweet Designs.

 Happy Stitching!

Pretty Puppies - ALYOF

My puppies like they are ready to make trouble, don't they?

What a fun pattern this was from  Lorna's Dog Gone Cute QAL.   I made the smaller size puppy and stayed within essentially true life puppy colors.   The cornerstones and second border are from a blue solid I had in my stash.

No immediate need to finish this one but I think I'll get it quilted anyway.  Too cute to be left unfinished!

Finishing the quilt top was my goal for October (goal setting post).  I'll be linking at Another Lovely Year of Finishes.






Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife enjoying time at the Spa

The LAQ spa!!

Instagram post from my LAQ Cathy Kirk.... can't wait to pick up my quilt!

For the backing, I used a grey print from another of Bonnie and Cammile's lines.  My extra block was all nested nicely in the back as my quilt label.

Deciding on the borders and the backing was my May goal for Another Lovely Year of Finishes.  I'll be linking up at Another Lovely Year of Finishes .

Happy Stitching!

Elmer - the Elephant Parade

My elephant parade - complete with Elmer - is all assembled and ready for quilting.

Sew Fresh Quilts designed this wonderful Elephant Parade quilt.  Lorna is quite talented and she just released a zebra pattern!

Quilting this will be my April goal for Another Lovely Year of Finishes.  I'll be linking up at Another Lovely Year of Finishes  and I'll be linking up at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Happy Stitching!

Ready for the spa

My March goal for ALYOF was to finish my Grand Illusion's quilt top - this year's Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt.  All done and ready for the spa (aka my LAQ.)  This will be a gift for a friend.

 I'll be linking up at Another Lovely Year of Finishes .  My goal setting post was here.

Happy Stitching!

Back to Grand Illusions - ALYOF goal

Time to finish up my Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusions quilt.  I've got all the outer border blocks completed....

so it is time to finish the border assembly and schedule a trip to the spa for my quilt.

We had TWO snowstorms in North Carolina last week - the last one left us with 6" of very wet snow.   I rarely get to take pictures of quilts in the snow - yes, I know this is actually a good thing - but I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the quilt.

Finishing my quilt top is my March goal and I'll be linking up at Another Lovely Year of Finishes .  

6" of snow looked so pretty that first morning.  Happily, temps were above freezing the next day so melting started quickly.



Happy Stitching!

Grand Illusions Reveal!

The big reveal!!!  

True to form, Bonnie released the big reveal of the Grand Illusions quilt New Year's Day.  (Linking here.)

Bonnie, fantastic, fantastic mystery!  So much movement in just these 4 blocks.   I'll be linking up here and looking forward to all the other quilt reveals.  Some people manage to assemble the entire quilt top - but I'm quite happy with my 4 blocks.  It give me a great view of the finished product. (Note, there is an extra row of sashing between each of the blocks - probably should have overlapped them in the photo!)

I had trouble capturing the true block color outdoors - the single block below is a truer representation.  

These are a big and beautiful 12" blocks with a 3" sashing.  Still trying to decide on how big of a final size quilt I will go for but it is clear that I'll need to make more of each the clue blocks.  

After assembling my 4 blocks, this is what I have left:  12 of clue 1 (enough for 3 blocks), 8 of clue 2 (enough for 2 blocks), zero of clue 3, 9 pairs for the outer border, zero of the center 4 patch blocks and 2 of the quilt corner blocks. 

Creating these blocks will be my goal for January's Another Lovely Year of Finishes .


Happy Stitching!

ABC

I am in love with my ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWYZ quilt!

To quilt, I outlined each letter and then did an all over stipple.  It was quite fun.  The back is an incredibly soft red flannel with dark specks.  The border is a solid back.

My goal setting post was here.

These ABC blocks can be found across a series of posts on Temecula Blog.  I used my stack of  AMB solids.  There were so much FUN to assemble.

The quilt finished at 29" wide x 34" - a good baby size! This will a quilt for a new baby.

This was my ALYOF goal for December. I'll be linking up here.

Happy Stitching!