Snowflake Applique

I must have a short attention span because I have to constantly switch up my projects and take on more and more and more.

My WIPs (work in progress) are getting a bit out of hand. Does anyone else have this problem? This was my latest WIP however I have motored along and got this one completed.

I love looking at Pinterest and getting new ideas and I came along a picture of a very simple snowflake design. These days I am determined to only use my stash! So I dug through my messy fabric stash drawer seeing if I had any fabric that would work for the "Snowflake".

Fast forward through all the digging and it turns out I was in luck. I had all the right fabric colours, turns out most of the fabric I picked was from Fridays Off. Now all I needed was some guidance from my all knowing "Mom". I have never attempted applique before and you know "Mom knows best".

I was drawn to this pattern for its simple yet impactful design.

Plus I have been wanting to use my new orange peel template.  

  

After a long sew day at Moms 

(me sewing & mom teaching - she is still recovering from her 2nd hand surgery)

I had the top completed in no time. I have no idea why I never attempted applique before.

My amazing Husband was gracious enough to hold up the quilt top for me =D

Next was the basting. My mom read about a new technique called board basting and she thought I would be the perfect student to test it out.

It worked perfect and I easily basted the entire quilt MYSELF - yay! Usually it helps with a second set of hands for basting but seeing that my Mom is out of commission I was out of luck.

I was flying solo, and it worked out fine.

 Usually I have my quilts professionally machine quilted but it was decided that I should do this one from start to finish. I am a BIG NEWBIE when it comes to machine quilting and was laughing uncontrollably and at the same time thinking "What have I done" HAHA 

HOWEVER in the end I think the quilting actually looks really great.

Why oh Why must I second guess myself.

This quilts new home will be for an adorable baby boy who was born in January. A blue snowflake quilt for a beautiful winter baby.

Until next time

- The Youngest-

Fabric Love

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUILTING MOMMA!

I have a birthday sooooooooo close to Christmas! I ask for fabric all the time, for any event and I was thrilled with the selections I got at Christmas and my birthday! Chef got me an amazing cake that I got to share with my loved ones too! I love ANYTHING lemon! The cake was absolutely amazing and I got $ to spend on MORE fabric yet! How great is that!

 Below is what I got from my beautiful oldest who is NOT a quilter! She has great taste! The baby prints were picked by my grandson who convinced his Momma that "Nana" needs to make some baby quilts! Hmmmmm I wonder if that was a hint to ME or to his Momma? 💗

Look at all the lovely choices she made! You can't tell by the photo - but the purples have a silver sheen! Silver bling! I love it! I am anxious to see how that works up!

My birthday arrived and look what I got in the mail? The Youngest signed me up for a subscription from Fridays Off ! For the next three months there will be surprises showing up at my door! I love it when I get fabric from other people because it challenges me! I'm so "matchy-matchy" as The Youngest says - I need to use more of my right-brain and pick different colors and fabrics!

 Who doesn't love a fat quarter in a card? This was a surprise fabric I received! Isn't it lovely? I'm thinking of cutting out those triangles and making some tree's out of them! Just a thought!

I decided one of the projects I would do -- AFTER I finish The Youngest and her husband's wedding quilt that is: is a block of the month from Craftsy for their 2017 Blazing Star Block of the Month.  I used all of my gift $'s to pay for the fabric for this quilt. I am stoked! Now I know those non-quilters are out there going WHAT!!! For me, I brought the fabric home and just drooled! The colors are exact to the Craftsy class with the exception of the white - the pattern called for a light tan and I went with a white. Now, tips for anyone thinking about fabrics for these classes - go with Craftsy kits. They are way cheaper than buying on your own! Lesson learned for me! They buy in such vast quantities they are able to pass on savings for those kits directly to their members. 

Remember, Craftsy has so many other classes too! Baking, painting, woodworking, cooking, knitting, etc. Many of those classes are free and the instructors are amazing. It doesn't cost anything to join and there are many classes that are FREE! Like the one I am taking. You can't take a class outside of your home for most of the costs for these online classes. Check them out!

If you have any ideas of the things I can make - let me know! I love reading your comments and better yet, getting more ideas for more things to make!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

Margo

Dog Gone CUTE

I was browsing through some quilt blogs when I came across a Blog Hop by Sew Fresh Quilts. I was instantly enamoured with the Dog Gone Cute quilt. Without a second thought I knew I had to try my hand at this quilt.

Now a blog hop is a big commitment and I did not want to be tied down to any time lines. So instead of signing up for the HOP I purchased the pattern from Sew Fresh and decided to work at my own pace.

I found some fat quarters from an online Canadian fabric store Fridays Off specifically for this quilt. The customer service of Fridays Off was excellent and there are some really great fabric options on there, for a reasonable price.I find it hard to find online fabric shops that will ship to Canada without it costing me an arm and a leg.

Fridays Off offers $5.95 shipping anywhere in canada and orders over $125 ship free !!! That sold me right there. Oh and to top it off when I got my package in the mail there was a darling hard written note. Way to make a customer Happy! Way to go Fridays Off !!! Happy Customer right here ☺

Before I started the Dog Gone Cute quilt I had one more baby quilt I needed to finish as there was a dead line ... the baby was about to arrive! You can see that quilt in the "Winner of a Quilt" blog post which was posted earlier this month.

Check out my fabric choices below - can't wait for it to all come together.

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Like any other sew day I called my Mom up last minute and invited myself over. The deal was that if we are doing a sew day I needed to do her hair first. She got new rollers and wanted to test them out. I begrudgingly agreed ... I say begrudgingly only because if you have tried to put rollers in your hair with those darn pins it is a big pain in the B . U . T . T!

Alright lesson learned my Moms rollers are high tech and WAY better than the older style ones. They heat up fast, easy to put in and make amazing curls.

PS. FAMILY - I would like to add these rollers to my Christmas List ☺☺

With the hair done we now started on cutting all the fabric for the Dog Gone Cute Quilt. We worked out a system where Mom read the instructions and I cut the fabric.

The hardest thing I find when cutting fabric from a pattern is I always end up going back and forth from the pattern to the fabric. The whole "Measure Twice, Cut Once" idea. Well I second guess myself and end up measuring for about 5 minutes per cut. Having a reader and a cutter makes the whole cutting process go by a heck of a lot faster.

In one afternoon we managed to get all the background, ears and nose fabric cut + one patterned fabric for one dog. In the below picture you can see the first dog we selected to do.

We used the highlight as you go method. As we cut we highlight so we do not end up duplicating cuts that have already been made. This seems to work well for me.

In the initial layout of the pup (below) he looks more like a gremlin instead of a Cute Dog ha-ha.

This quilt is a work in progress. I am taking my time, trying to match up those points the best I can. As usual my seam ripper has become one of my best friends. My BF knows I have made a mistake when he hears the machine abruptly stop followed by several grumbling sounds.

Pup One- When I saw the final block I was like a kid hearing an ice cream truck in summer

Pup Two - One of my favorite fabrics from my Fridays Off purchase

Pup Three - This is the BFs colour choice ☺

 Pup Four - For some reason I found this one the trickiest so far (I may have been tired at this point)

This one is so cute I am going to keep it for myself.

Stay tuned for the completed quilt!

If you would like to see other projects from some fellow bloggers check them out HERE .

And don't forget to leave us a comment !!! We love hearing from you ☺