It's That Time of Year! Quilty Folk Applique Template Giveaway!

I cannot believe we are this close to Christmas again! Where did the year go? Fed-Ex finally delivered our tree today, so maybe we can get into the proper holiday spirits after the tree lights start twinkling. Last year I gifted an applique template during this time of year and it seemed to be well received. Well over a hundred 'Yes, please! I want that!' comments plus emails, which really, is the best sort of compliment. Cozy quilts seem to be the thing we most want to work on during the holidays.

The older {Happy Flowers} Love Apple blocks

So this year, much in the same vein, I am doing another Very Merry Christmas giveaway to all my loyal readers! *This offer is good through December 25th!* Most everyone who responded the other day wanted the older Happy Flowers template, but I just couldn't resist offering the newer, funkier looking flower too. They are just so sweet! Everyone should have at at least one Love Apple quilt hanging around, right?

The newer 2021 Love Apple Blocks

If you are interested in obtaining the gift of these simple, folksy applique templates, all you have to do is leave a request in the comments or drop me an email. It's that easy! Both templates will be included in the PDF that will be attached in the return email. Depending on how many requests that I receive, it may take me until January 1st to get completely caught up. Please be patient! If you haven't received anything by that date, it will be because I can't find your return email. Then you can get grumpy {hopefully reach out again}, we can talk more, and then, probably, the PDF will finally be zinging your way.

A few things to consider:

• Please leave your email address in the comment or you might very well get lost in the Blogger quagmire of privacy issues. Can leave it in this form: 'audkateaster at gmail dot com'  if you are nervous about throwing it out into the universe {use your email address not mine of course} . Or you can just email me directly if that works better. 
• If you don't request the template, I won't be sending it to you. I'll just assume you stopped by to say 'Hi'!
• This is a limited time offer, good only through Christmas Day, 2021. Last year I randomly got requests throughout the entire year! Which occasionally kind of drives me nuts, just saying. After December 25th, 2021 you will only get this giveaway PDF if you physically mail me a fat quarter or two through the postal service: Audrey Easter, PO Box 2251, Pateros, WA 98846. That tells me you're seriously in the mood to make this and not just trying to scoop up a freebie. It doesn't even have to be brand new fabric, just make sure it's suitable for quilting! And I'm dead serious about this unless maybe you live overseas and the shipping would be astronomical. Then we'll talk. Call me a meanie, but a giveaway needs to have an end date! Be sure your email is included with the fabric so I can get the PDF sent to the right person. 
• Just to be clear, this giveaway is for applique templates ONLY, not quilt patterns. You'll probably want to trace the designs onto template plastic or freezer paper before you get started. 
• When cutting the background fabric, 9" x 9" squares of fabric work fine for both motifs, even though one is on point and the other straight up and down. Feel free to make your background whatever size looks best to you though!
• Both templates include a skinny rectangle shape that can be traced and used for the flower stem. I prefer to make long {bias or not} vines and cut into proper lengths. In the case of the Happy Flower block, you'll want to start with 2" strips and sew the really scant seam and then iron the seam to the back. For the newer Love Apple block, start with 1 1/2" strips and proceed like the previous block. So much easier hand stitching straight edges when all the raw edge is clear out of the way!
• For all you stressy peoples out there, I need to tell you that it's highly unlikely these motifs will line up exactly even steven. Ha! Remember that the preferred look around here at Quilty Folk is cozy and hand touched, not precise and rigidly straight!
• Please do not copy, redistribute or try to sell these templates. It might make me shut down my blog and go cry in a corner.

Okay, that's it. Any questions? Shoot me an email! Happy Holidays to all!

A gift of Free Autumnal Tulip Applique Templates Thru Christmas Day 2020!

Autumnal Tulips is a true blue finish now! This has been such a sweet quilt to work on, I almost didn't want it to be finished up. How is it that some quilts start out so impulsively but then somehow end up being an all time fave?

The finished quilt

This is a quilt that has generated quite a bit of interest, here and also on Pinterest {not that I follow any of that very closely}. Surprisingly, a couple people have also requested a pattern.

A full view

Picture me scrunching up my face and making a 'who, me?' look and you know that's not going to happen. I'm terrible at making patterns, don't have the tools to do it properly and honestly, just don't want to take the time to fine tune all the details.

Looking closely

However, in light of the fact that it's close to Christmas and this year has been a total buzzkill, I decided to trace all the applique templates onto a piece of paper and save it as a PDF file. Just for YOU! Thank you to all my wonderfully supportive readers who stick with me through good quilts and sometimes, even the bad. I love you for that.

Crumpled quilty goodness

No, I can't figure out how to embed it into a post or load it somewhere onto my blog. After about an hour of trying I completely gave up. Techy stuff is so not my area of expertise and I have better things to do with my time right now!

Ready for a good snuggle!

So here's the deal. I'm offering you a Very Merry Christmas gift from Quilty Folk! If you want to have a copy of the Autumnal Tulips applique templates, leave a request in the comments below or drop me an email. It's that simple. I will attach the pdf file with my return email and then you can get started on your own version of this sweet, spunky quilt! Wouldn't it look yummy in pink and/or red poinsettia colors too? This offer is good through December 25th, but I might need until January 1st to get caught up on all the emails. Life is kinda crazy around here during the best of times!

A few notes to consider: 

• This is NOT a pdf total quilt 'pattern', simply the templates for applique parts and pieces. Obviously they'll work better if you trace the shapes onto template plastic or freezer paper before using.
•  This is not a huge quilt. My quilt ended up being 48 3/4" x 57 1/2" after being washed and dried!
• There are 30-8" tulips blocks in my version. Cut the background fabrics out at 8 1/2" x 8 1/2".
• I included a template for the stem, but it's actually easier to make a long tube of bias or not bias stem {either one will work here} and further cut to size in regards to the length. Cut stem fabric out at 1 5/8" wide in long lengths. Sew the lengths together and then further sew into a very long tube with an extremely scant seam. Iron the tube with the seam at the middle at the back. Cut 30 stems at approx. 4 1/4" long each.
• Sashing and cornerstone squares are cut out at 1 3/4" wide.
• Outside border fabric is cut out at 3 1/2" wide.

That's all the guidance you get, but I'm pretty sure most will be off and running with something amazingly unique and totally different from the quilt pictured! 

For the purposes of this giveaway, be sure to leave a return email in your 'request' comment. If you do not request the pdf file, I will assume you don't want it. Remember, blogger does not always play nicely with others these days, and a lot of comments can easily end up being 'no reply'. Even if your comments always made it thru to my email a year ago! What no-reply means is, I have no way to contact you! ZERO! If you have not heard back from me by January 1st, then it might be best to email me personally at audkateaster at gmail dot com. Crossing my fingers this actually works!

Day 6 of the Strip Quilt Secrets Blog Hop. You Could Win a Copy of This Book!

Woot! Woot! Diane Knott has a brand new book out and I think you're gonna want this one too! In her introductory she says, 'I want to make quilts that are comforting to look at as they are to use'. Oh yes, she's definitely speaking my language.

Reading through the book, I came upon several interesting tips on dealing with strip sets. Things that I always have problems with, like sub cutting the long strip sets. You know how they tend to get this slanted thing going on, and you always have to trim a little bit more to get those nice, sharp pieced units? She addresses that in a way that I can't wait to try out.

The true test of a good quilting book {to me} is when I find a quilt that resonates and suddenly I'm imagining it in fabrics that are already stashed away. I've been wanting to find a good 'chain' pattern and Shimmer really hits the high notes. You have to know that I'm already envisioning it with an appliqued border....

After dithering about color palettes and little details like that, I read a little deeper into the pattern. Hallelujah! She even has pressing instructions for all those strip sets! In the picture below, you can see that the arrows indicate proper pressing directions. Yep, I'm sold. So very frustrating to try and join multiple strips into something that looks good, when all your best efforts inadvertently end up causing stacked seams.

I tried not to veer too far off the pattern with this fabric selection pictured below. Really! So surprising as I usually upend the entire suggested pattern selection and practically stand it on its head. I ended up choosing lighter purples for the chains than what Diane chose, and then mixed up the value in the middle units a little bit more than what might be wise. Didn't choose as many bright and happy colors. My goal here is to create a fade-in, fade-out look with the lighter purple chains barely holding the line. I love that this pattern is so set, but you know me. Always having to take a risk somewhere to keep things extra interesting! We'll see if it works out, but regardless, the strips are cut out now. Guess that means I'm committed!

I also took a good hard look at the Fiesta quilt. Diane does such a fabulous job with value and her brighter, more cheerful quilts are, as always, especially inspiring. When you get a chance to flip through the book, you'll quickly realize that many of the quilts also come with pieced border instructions. Love that! Having collected many scrap quilting books throughout the years, I can tell you that this means that Diane has went the extra mile to make each quilt extra special.

You can also be sure that she is a true-blue, die hard, scrap quilter at heart, by the fact that she includes instructions for the quilt below. Be still my frugal, utility quilt loving heart! Made in different colors and older fabrics, it could very well have been made a hundred years ago! There are great directions for diving head first into your scrap bin and making use of all those little bitty castoffs. Not in the mood to spend much time pre-planning or cutting before getting started? This is your quilt!

Diane is giving away a Strip Quilt Secrets book at every single one of the Blog Hop sites, including this one! For a chance to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment below telling me what your very favorite quilt book is. {I don't care if it's already on your shelf or a new one that's currently just on your wish list, inquiring minds want to know!} And oh yeah, present book excluded as there's no doubt it's front and center in everyone's mind right about now!

I'll draw a winner on Monday, January 14th. Please leave an email within your comment if there's any chance you might be a no-reply commenter. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of postage, this giveaway is only open to US residents. For those of you unable to leave a comment, due to the vagaries of Blogger, you can drop me an email at audkateaster at gmail dot com. I'll make sure to include you in the drawing as well. Only one stop left after mine, so you'll want to be sure and check that out on Thursday! Let's give some love to Diane and have a whole bunch of comments for her to check out. You and I both know that she'll be reading each and every one.....!

A Very Yellow Post

I have so enjoyed hand quilting on Quarter Circles Round #2. There's just something about this bold, in-your-face yellow quilt that makes me smile. Today has seen the first stage of the binding sewn on and surprisingly, {at least to me}, it's going to be red. Two striped pieces of homespun straight from the stash.

Ready for binding

More and more, I pull binding fabrics from the stash. Even if I have to use four to six fabrics? Who cares. I certainly don't! It just helps to add charm and homemade flavor to many quilts.

Next up in the hoop is the Basket Medallion quilt. The first post I could find concerning this quilt was from February 2013. This is one that I regret not getting quilted much, much sooner. You know, like during the time I was still enthused about it? Yeah, it wasn't always this way.

Starting in the  middle--already have the
top two baskets quilted!

I had a enormous amount of fun while building this quilt. It was something that kept me very engaged and I even typed up one of my rare tutorials, all about how to make pieced borders fit properly. A couple people asked and I gave it my level best. Most replied back that it did actually make sense, and might even help them just a little bit with future projects. That was pretty cool, even though tutorials are mind-numbingly time consuming....

Trying to figure out how to quilt that yellow sawtooth border....

Medallions are still one of my very favorite style of quilts as I'm sure you've all noticed. I love 'em! There's almost always one or two medallion style quilts in the works around here and often, I'm busy behind the scenes planning out yet another one. They totally, unashamedly, make my motor run.

But somehow, somewhere, through the depths of time, I've lost connection to this particular quilt. Maybe it's the old color palette that doesn't have enough happy in it to suit me these days. Whatever.  It was on my 2018 absolutely-gonna-get-it-finished-up list and by George, it's gonna happen. Too much money for professional long arm work {on something I feel 'meh' about}, I'm horrible at machine quilting and well, yeah. Guess that leaves hand quilting.

Most borders should quilt up easy peasy....

Which will only make it look nicer. I know!! It's gonna be fine and probably, like always, I'll fall back in love and get all sappy and sweet and you'll want to gag. But it will be crossed off the list and someday I'll even find the perfect person to gift it to. You know I will. That being said, I'm gonna push hard on this one 'cuz I want it done before December happens. Oooh, do I ever....

Love this giveaway so much!

On a different note, I won another giveaway! So much fun. I've been entering giveaways over at Okan Arts for like, forever. Always good stuff to drool over. This giveaway was one Uppercase magazine and a copy of the new Little U magazine from the same publisher. I've been eyeballing the Uppercase magazines for a long time now so am thrilled to get the addition with an article about quilts made out of wooden pieces! Now, thanks to Patricia Belyea and her generous spirit, I have some great weekend reading! Someday I would love to browse through her store in Seattle, if ever the opportunity presented itself....

Progress on the Vintage Coxcombs and a Giveaway!

This week is the 7th blogiversary for Quilty Folk! When I first started blogging, months would go by without a single comment. Sometimes I would post pictures of the current project, other times I would just chat into the wind {which was totally okay by me}.  But the whole premise behind why this blog was started, remains the same. I quite honestly love to be talking about quilting!

Giveaway!

So for all of you who keep dropping by and encouraging me to keep going, it feels like a good time for a giveaway! For one lucky winner, there is the latest issue of Primitive Quilts & Projects {the fall addition}, Bring Me Flowers pattern book by Jen Kingwell and 1-10 1/2" applique basket block by yours truly. It's a leftover block from the Gather Ye Roses quilt top made earlier this year. If you're the winner and you don't want it included, don't worry, it won't hurt my feelings one little bit!

To be entered to win, answer the following question and be sure I have a way to contact you! The question is: What determines whether or not you actually take the time to leave a comment on someones post? I'm so curious because I lurked on lots of blogs {for about two years} without ever leaving a single comment. Then I just caved and started commenting here and there--for all sorts of reasons. Now I follow a ton of blogs on Bloglovin' and could never begin to leave comments on them all. There simply isn't enough time!

If you're a follower of this blog, feel free to leave a second comment telling me how you follow for a second chance to win! I am willing to ship to an international winner as well as a winner in the USA.

Vintage Coxcombs

So on another note, about the Vintage Coxcombs quilt shown here? It's starting to take shape with a light, bright sashing. I'm so happy with the way it brightens the quilt and makes it sort of sparkle. This was always in the back of my mind and I was positively delighted to have enough of the sashing fabric on hand. It really needed something special to give those soft browns, taupes and faded grays a bit of a boost.

So happy they aren't all perfectly the same....

Now I'm eyeing the more colorful leftover fabrics with a border in mind. Of course. Because it's telling it desperately needs to have a border? lol  First off I pulled the softer pinks and then quickly dropped them. Uggh! Next up were the blue-greens. Maybe I could piece them with some of the softer grays?

Such a mellow looking quilt...

That wasn't doing anything for me at all, and so I did a deep dive into the stash totes, started pulling some stronger blue-greens. Ahh... now we're talking. Or rather I'm thinking. The fabrics are simmering! One day next week or so, we'll get together and have that little discussion. I can tell you it's leaning heavily towards a simple, sawtooth style border, but we'll see. Nothing is ever truly settled until it's all cut and sewn on. Even then, it's not totally out of the question to get the seam ripper out if it feels necessary! Much better to take a little time and get it right the first time though....

I'll pick a winner for the giveaway probably next Tuesday. Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you or I'll have to move on to the next person! Good luck!

Giveaway Winners and A New Quilt Top!

A very big thank you to everyone who linked up their Quilty 365 quilts or quilt tops! So exciting to see 19 wonderful versions all together. The Random Generator determined that Wendy Caton Reed from 'The Constant Quilter' is the winner of the first giveaway! {I included the names of 3 quilters who finished quilt tops but didn't have a blog to link up to.} Congrats to the second giveaway winner, Karen from 'Karen's Korner'! as well.

Loving these blocks!

On a more personal note, I finally got the quilt top finished up for my Rising Sun blocks that were giving me oodles of trouble. Several were puckered so badly in places or 'hilly' in the middle, that it seemed impossible to go further with them. But after all that work? Crazy to throw them away.

A new quilt top!

Being an intrepid soul, I came up with a plan to cut them in half and use them for border work in a totally different layout than originally planned. I marked the center line and then sewed very close on both sides. After that, I sliced through the marked line. Having the the edges of the quilt stay-stitched will {at least partially} secure the blocks from unraveling while engaging in future quilting. It's an offbeat solution, but using them way helps mask the glaringly, obvious mistakes by demoting them to a secondary position in the quilt. Plus, cutting down through the middle helps stretch out that poofy area that happened from my careless stitching. In my pie-in-the-sky dreams, hand quilting will eventually smooth out the worst of the worst and then washing and subsequent crinkling of the quilt will make it all look charmingly make-do.

Rising Sun blocks now in the border...

Honestly, I am absolutely thrilled and yes, giddy! with the way the alternate applique came out! It's so sweet in a look-at-me sort of way. Totally holding its own with the more complex rising sun blocks! It was so odd though, to work backwards and then be scrambling to fill in the middle of a quilt. So challenging and yet, zero pressure to speak of. I mean seriously, how much worse could it get? I literally had almost nothing to lose from this experiment! So ironic how the challenge of working with a big fat 'oops' can cause us to be more invested in a quilt project too. In this case, it ended up being so much better than the original plan 'cuz I just totally went with my gut and played for the pleasure of playing. Hey, why not try this? And the results are more 'me' than ever expected. Maybe the  'me' look is a big helping of mistakes with a generous side of 'fix-it'. Hmmm... Something to consider?*wink

Quilty 365 Quilt Top Linkup and Giveaway!

Remember the year long Quilty 365 journey? So much fun and yet, surprisingly tough to get through there towards the end. Wowsers! I have to admit, my daily inspiration fabric became weekly {or sometimes biweekly} and always came with a rapid pileup of stitching to catch up on.

One month of circles!

But we made it! 366 days of circles including the Leap Day circle. Once I completed the quilt top, it got stuck in my quilt top drawers and hasn't made a peep since. I've seriously thought about pulling it out later this year and getting it to a true-blue finish, but there are lots of projects in front of it for now. We'll see how the year plays out and talk later!

I have been amazed and inspired by all the wonderful participation. So humbling. Love all the creativity shown and how it showcases many great quilting personalities! It made the whole year better, getting to share and see how others were coming along with their own quilty 365 journeys. I quite enjoyed all the quirks and personal touches! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who stuck with this simple project. It may look like just another circle quilt in a world of many, but we know better. These particular circle quilts have heart and soul.

Finally, a quilt top!

Somewhere along the way I promised a giveaway for the die-hard circlers who made it through to the bitter end. It's a special quilt, especially if you stitched through all the ups and downs of the seasons. Lots of memories wrapped up in this project already!

So here's the details for the first giveaway: If you have a quilt top finish {a flimsy or a totally completed quilt is okay too}, then please link up below so we can all admire it! We want to see your amazing layout so we can drool and shake our heads, wishing we would have thought up something so good. For all that have something to link up, you will automatically be entered in the drawing for the first giveaway, which is a $30 gift certificate from Connecting Threads! It's a great store where you'll find backing fabric, batting, thread, notions and even books etc. Also included in that giveaway is your choice of the two prizes below {the Perle Cotton thread and needles--perfect for hand quilting OR the DMC embroidery thread and needles--wonderful for applique work}. Please state your preference in the comments below. One person will win both the gift card and one or the other of the secondary prizes pictured below.

2 Balls of #8 DMC Perle Cotton Thread, 1 Ball of  #12 neutral, variagated
Valdani thread and 1 pkg. of Fons & Porter Utility needles

The second giveaway will go to a name drawn strictly from the comments. That prize will be either the Perle Cotton thread and needles OR the DMC embroidery thread and needles--whichever remains after the winner of the first giveaway gets their choice. This means it will be open to everyone, and though it's unlikely, the linkup winner from the first giveaway could even win the secondary prize too!

3 spools of 50 wt. DMC Embroidery thread and 1 pkg. English
Scarlet Today applique needles

Sometimes we just run out of steam on a project and that's perfectly okay. I've done it many times myself. As a thank you to all who started the project but ended up running short of a quilt top, please feel free to add a second comment to increase your chances to win in the second drawing. If you want to continue with the monthly linkups, they are now happening over at Daisy and Jack!

Linkups are open to quilters with a Quilty 365 quilt or quilt top only. Comments are open to all! The giveaway will run for a week and then I will email the winners with the details. If there are any problems contacting the winners then I will simply draw another name. Please be sure there is a way to properly contact you!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Scrap Quilt Secrets Giveaway and Blog Tour!

Have you ever tried to make a scrap quilt and ended up with something that sort of looked like mush? Not every piece of fabric in your stash {or even your scrap bin} belongs together in the same quilt. Diane of Butterfly Threads Quilting just published a great new book explaining her system of making scraps play together very nicely.

Want to win a copy of this book?

Her acronym of S.C.R.A.P.S. is so simple you can almost miss the brilliance of what she's trying to say. Every successful scrap quilt requires some guidelines to, as she writes, 'make quilts that truly represent your personality'. Ahh.. I so wish I could have had this book when starting out with my first quilting efforts! It totally reflects how genuine Diane is about helping other quilters connect with their own quilts as they learn to 'follow their hearts'.

So much to think about!

So I flipped through the book and found a simple pattern that looked impossible to mess up. I wanted to put the scrappy tips to the test! I'm usually terrible at following pattern directions, but this time things made perfect sense. No re-writing in my own quilty language involved! And simple pattern or no, this quilt had a sweet charm that sort of intimidated me at first. Sometimes a quilt really needs to be made in the specific colorway the designer chose or it isn't going to look quite so.., well, sweet. Good challenge, right? I paid close attention to the details of {most} of Diane's scrappy tips: Style, Contrast, Repetition, Accent, Palette and Selvages {didn't have any of those to work with} and started making my version of Citrus Squeeze, below.

Diane's Citrus Squeeze

Once I made the important decisions concerning fabric and color, the quilt went together very quickly. I love how she continually urges the reader to consider changing things up--personalize the outcome. She totally gets that the more of ourselves we invest, the more we're gonna appreciate the results. Even with her pattern as the foundation of my quilt, this quilt was almost instantly recognizable as a 'me' quilt.

And just for the record, I completely followed Citrus Squeeze pattern directions until the very end. Then and only then, I gave into temptation and added one measly little, outer border and the teensy tiny, bit of flower applique. Because you know the quilt was just asking for it....

So happy with my version of Citrus Squeeze
{Leaves still need some stitching}

What an honor to be included in this particular blog hop! I had such a great time playing along with Diane's ideas and still ending up with a 'me' quilt. Honestly, that doesn't always happen. If you'd like a chance to win a copy of this book {e-version for international winners}, just leave a comment below. Tell me what your definition of 'scrap' quilt is. Does it have to include a hundred different fabrics or are you a purist and want it made completely from the leftover bits and pieces, no matter how many fabrics are involved? Don't forget to check out all the other links for extra chances to win this book!

3/21    C&T Blog http://www.ctpub.com/blog/

with Diane (that’s me)www.butterflythreadsquilting.com

3/22    Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

3/23    Lori http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/

3/24    Karen http://nanagirlquilts.blogspot.com/  

3/25    Audrey http://quiltyfolk.blogspot.com/

3/26    Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com/

3/27    Valerie http://myplvl.blogspot.com/

3/28    Kelly http://pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/

3/29    Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

3/30    Rachaeldaisy http://bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.com/

3/31    Angie http://quiltingcrescent.blogspot.com/

4/1       Julie http://quiltjewelry.blogspot.com/

4/2       Barb Www.funwithbarb.com

Please leave an email with your comment if you are a no-reply commentor or I will not be able to include you in the drawing! This drawing is open through April 2nd!

The Giveaway Winner and The Antique Wall-Hanging Progress

Today is the day I'm supposed to announce the winner of last weeks giveaway! So without further ado, the winner chosen by the random generator is Jacqueline, with her comment 'I seem to make some change to every project I make. Just want to make it "mine" I guess. Thanks for a chance.' I'll be needing a mailing address so the pattern pack can find its new owner!

My antique {block} wall-hanging

And here's another completion for my uh... quilt top drawers? I don't think there's time to actually finish, finish with binding etc. during this month, but it could happen. Maybe. If pigs started flying and my kids decided they liked to do housework and yard work. Besides, there are other quilts in the lineup before I could possibly justify working on this one!

The antique quilt block that started off this whole quilting adventure has some blue dye issues which makes me reluctant to use it in a full sized to-be-used quilt. But who says it can't find a good home in a smallish look-at-me sort of quilt? I picked up the hand pieced quilt block on our travels to Oklahoma a couple years ago so it has some sentimental pulls for me. I tried to honor the antique/vintage looking style of the block but also went a little crazy with my folky sort of applique. Just because I could. And I'm thinking it will look great on the only other open wall in my quilt room. Which hopefully isn't going anywhere, so why bother rushing?

My Cozy Village Pattern Pack Giveaway!

Do you know Felicia T. Brenoe? I didn't either until an email arrived asking if I would like to be a part of her new 'My Cozy Village' pattern pack blog tour. Honestly, I was a bit tentative until some research proved that, wowsers! this lady definitely knows her applique! Her first pattern below clearly shows some influence from that wonderful Japanese style of work, but if you look a little closer, there's a very playful touch too.

My Cozy Village

Felicia's use of fabric and color is so refreshing to me. Can't you just see the fun in these quilts? I love how she's not afraid to mix things up and show off her whimsical side in fabric print, color and piecing placement. The second colorway of her pattern {below} encourages us to be willing to play with our quilt outcome. Such bold choices! Those of you who are fairly new to applique should have absolutely nothing to be afraid of with this particular pattern. It has all the details of a rigorous 'all-in' sort of applique project, with plenty of room for imperfection and/or personal style.

Simplified, but more playful version of My Cozy Village

What tipped the balance and made me decide to tell you more about Felicia are these two things: This post {about applique} really, really resonated with me, and also, there's a free pattern pack for one of my lucky readers! Yay! I know how much some of you love a good applique project. Just leave a comment below telling me how often you personally make a change in a pattern; either in fabric, colorway, or placement. Does this make you feel guilty or just plain 'ol creative? Inquiring minds would love to know.*wink  

If you'd like even more chances to win this great pattern pack, check out the other stops in the blog tour. For all you goody stalkers, there's some other things being given away at those links too, like batting and wash-away applique sheets.

3/7 C&T Publishing Blog

3/10 Quilter's Dream Batting

3/11 Quilty Folk

3/12 Live Originally

3/14 Generation Q

3/15 Felicia's World

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win! Comments need to have a direct link to a valid email to be entered into the drawing. Please leave an email address within your comment if you're unsure, as I will only include entries in the drawing where the winner is easily accessible. 

International respondents are certainly welcome to take part in the drawing but will receive an eBook instead of an actual pattern pack. Entries are open through March 15th! This may have been the first time {for me} to hear about Felicia, but I have a feeling she's going to have more lovely applique work in her future. Don't you?

Giveaway Winners, Appliqued Leaves and Why I'm Not Currently a Local Guild Member

Time to announce the winners from my 5 years of blogging giveaway! Very fun that both of them are quilt bloggers who I'm already familiar with! The first winner is Quilting Babcia from Amity Quilter blog. I will be giving her 'The 1718 Coverlet' book. The second winner, Marie from Quilt Bee, will  receive 'The Farmers Wife' book. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone else for joining in on my little giveaway! Emails will also be sent to the winners.

The giveaway books!

The weekend quickly developed into quite the young peoples house party as soon as my oldest son showed up on Friday evening. He brought my youngest son back home from his two week stay in Oregon along with a couple other friends. This annual city celebration always has 3-on-3 tournament that seems very popular with the younger crowd. This year two of the teams were from my very own extended family--one adult team with my son, two brothers and a cousin, plus a high school team including my youngest son, a niece, her twin brother and one of his friends. My husband ended up being one of the court monitors and I just went to cheer things on, apply sunscreen forty-two times and wonder why this could possibly be considered fun. lol   Nevertheless, we enjoyed having our house busting at the seams with all these good-natured kids.

All the leaves appliqued down on half the quilt now!

I didn't get much quilting done as I spent a lot of time at my parents house visiting with all the siblings in town for the celebration. Mostly I pulled out my hand work bag very, very late in the evenings waiting for all the teenagers to show up or making sure the kiddos were actually settling in for the night--boys upstairs, girls downstairs! Lots of late nights for sure and for some reason I was in the mood for applique instead of hand quilting. Working on so many leaves can get a bit tedious, but really, applique of any kind {unless it's letters} can be very relaxing and meditative for me. The more I work on this eagle quilt though, the more I do think it needs another border! And I'm thinking about, uhuh, the addition of words! Such as courage, strength, victory? Stop me. I just can't seem to help myself!

Showing the quilt to some of my family members who couldn't see the
details of the quilt at the show.....

Thanks so very, very much for all of your encouraging words after my last post. For those of you who wonder why I have never joined the guild in the first place, it's fairly simple {at least in my mind}. I moved back to the area in 2004 and just happily joined back up with the same quilting group I was a part of before. We were all friends and/or family, most of us from the same church. I was a very inexperienced quilter and it felt safe, plus it was a fun group! This group gradually disbanded about 2--2 1/2 yrs. or so ago due to people moving away, getting busy with life and/or being disinterested in extra quilting projects.

Ironically, I had been considering joining the local guild prior to this years quilt show. The guild definitely appears to be declining as members are getting older and less productive. They have always been very receptive to our group as far as entering quilts into the show {perhaps because they needed the extra entries?}, but obviously are more pleased with specific styles of quilts over others. In conversation with a few of them through the years, I have deduced that the greatest emphasis is placed on technical precision, long arm quilting, and a careful, 'safe' use of fabric and color--not creativity or exploring personal style. This frankly, has made me a bit wary to be pushy about becoming a member as my focus is not exactly what they take pride in.

I will probably never know the answers to what happened this past weekend but I'm going to be okay. Truly. Ironically, my sister-in-law is the city clerk and she offered to hang the quilt in the town museum for a month if (and when) I decide I want to. Too, the paperwork is already printed out and siting on my desk to apply for entering into the NCW quilt guild show in Wenatchee, Washington.  Big step for cowardly 'ol me, but this is the show that I was supposedly asked to enter my Fire Quilt into by the visiting quilter. I may just have a little steam behind me now.*wink

I also have the papers for application of the quilt into the Washington State Quilters show in Spokane, Washington?*gulp  My husband is not really into that particular idea as he says the quilt will not be quite as relevant over there. We'll see. As I've been reminded lately, quilts have a way of being relevant almost anywhere! I do have a couple weeks to consider the idea before the application deadline arrives. Again, thank you for all the very thoughtful responses to my disappointment with the local quilt show. As always, I will do my best to respond to each one of them personally as I get time and opportunity.

Finishing Up With the Mini Cake Stands For the Very Last Time

Every now and then I make a really big quilt top. Like this one. It finished out at 86" x 104"! I'm trying to do better about that, but sometimes a quilt just sort of explodes on me. Either that, or I just don't know when to quit?

Mini Cake Stands a completed quilt top, finally, finally, finally.....

This quilt started out in 2012 with me having a great time playing with green and blue prints, making little cake stand blocks like they were going out of style. Fast forward to a quilt top finish and I was severely deflated by the results of my efforts. Blehhhhh....

Lazy me, it's not ironed yet!

I bundled my quilt top into a drawer and hid it away. And the quilting part? Well, it never seemed to happen even though I'd pull it out occasionally and contemplate the stitching. Something about it was just all wrong. Finally, in January of this year, I made an important decision about the future of this particular quilt. It wasn't worthy of being quilted 'as is', and I sure didn't want to waste these sweet little cake stand blocks! Anyway, shortly after that mind boggling decision, you'd find me ripping my ugly quilt apart with great dedication. It was quite the conversation piece around here, let me tell you!

Mini Cake Stands fading into the background

Deciding how to put it back together was a bit challenging, but I stuck with an old fashioned, utility style look. Hard to go wrong with that! I didn't buy any extra fabric, but raided my stash in order to find the various pink, green and brown prints used for secondary blocks. Then, deep in my cream/lt. tan fabric tote, I stumbled upon the cream and green stripe fabric that I ended up choosing for the setting triangles. It's a bit bland and unexciting really, but every other color I auditioned just made some other color in the quilt start jangling and clashing. Why oh why do I always try to push the boundaries of  specific colors/hues and shades residing comfortably next to each other? lol  {I think we all probably know the answer to that....}

Obviously not going to work....

Oh well. It's a finished quilt top now and one that I'm much happier with, all things considered! On another note, this fabulous book came in the mail from JulieKQuilts! So much inspiration. I just love it!

My giveaway winnings...

Every month she has a Binding Blitz to encourage us slackers to go ahead and finish our quilts for good. Everyone is welcome to join in! And what a sweetheart. She included a little roll of cream fabric strips too! Very fun stuff and you know me, I'm always happy to be a winner. And have an opportunity to play with more fabric!*wink

Oh yeah, for those that may have missed it, my own giveaway is still open until Sunday!

New Reading Material and a Giveaway!

I love quilt books. That's primarily how I learned to quilt many years ago, along with all my friends in our church quilt group. Living in a rural area, quilting classes were few and far between. Between all of us in the group, we'd devour every quilt book and magazine we could {cheaply} get our hands on, try new things out and then freely share information. Ah... we were such beginners.

My new reading material

It's still really hard to resist buying every shiny, new quilt book that catches my eye! But I am doing better these days, trying to make sure to only buy the ones that will be much appreciated. I generally put them on my Amazon wish list and then wait, and wait, and wait.....! It absolutely helps me to be sure that I'm not wasting money. The top three books are my latest acquisitions, my I-can't- resist-you-books, but thought maybe now would be a good time to share too.

On July 19th, this little quilt blog will be 5 yrs. old! Woohoo! I started out blogging about once a week and now I average two or three times that. There are highs and lows, weeks of constant progress and times of slow, more like plodding, efforts. I believe my style has changed, morphed and grown. There is a confidence emerging in what I do that feels wonderful {uhuh, in spite of all my insecurities and whining} and I honestly feel like a true-blue quilter now, not just a wanna be! Here on the blog, I've slowly figured out the details of Blogger and blog etiquette and gently developed a blogging voice, with all the terrible grammar that goes along with it.*wink  And even though it's been difficult at times, I've tried to stay very real and true to who I am, someone who just wants to share a great love of the quilting process with people who are interested in the particulars. So much fun to have any one of you check in when time permits and generously cheer me on. It's really good stuff.

The giveaway books!

So... in the interest of sharing {like I did with my friends back at the beginning} and to celebrate 5 yrs. of stick-with-it blogging! I'm having a giveaway for two winners. First I'm going to give away my brand new copy of 'The 1718 Coverlet' book. It's a fabulous book and although I've been drooling, I don't think it's affected the book at all. I can already see that this book is an 'eye-candy' book to me and it needs to go to someone who desperately wants to make the quilt. Also, I'm giving away an older book straight off of my bulging shelf,  'The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt'. I've flipped through it several times in the last couple years, but it also needs to move to a home where it can be well used.

If you're interested in winning either of these books, leave a comment telling me the first time you jumped onto my blog. Or tell me how you share inspiration with all your quilty friends. A second comment from my followers telling me how you follow can be a second chance to win. Don't forget to tell me if you'd prefer one book over the other! And other than my name written in the flap, I promise you the second book {cd included} is in excellent shape! The giveaway will end at midnight of July 19th! The giveaway is open to international readers too unless the shipping winds up being prohibitive! Good luck!

Announcing the Winners!

We have winners! The SMS Giveaway was definitely a fun way to get to know people and hear their thoughts about making and creating. So great to hear the thoughtful {and often, heartfelt} comments regarding why all of us seem to need this in our lives! I smiled, laughed out loud and nodded my head so much that my neck is sore today.

The little birdie keeping watch over the entries....

Well, that might be because of the way I slept last night, but still, you get the idea.

My youngest daughter chose the winning papers out of the bowl for me. She's helpful like that since we tend to do things the old fashioned way around here! So without further ado the winners:

The #1 winner {getting the book and a pattern} is:
Brenda  I like that you describe yourself as a maker. That's a word I've used about myself forever. A little boy I used to take care of (now in his mid-twenties) once asked me, "How come you always have to be makin' somethin'?" It was tough to come up with an answer that satisfied a 5-year old, when my real answer is simply "Because." I've been like that since I was a kid, coming up with ways to make what I wanted. From using Kleenex and tape to make Barbie clothes and peach crates and left over hot pink enamel bathroom paint to make a doll couch to disassembling anything that didn't work (and some that did), just for the challenge of "making" them again. I just gotta. Because.

The #2 and #3 winners {getting a pattern only} are:

Jovanna  I love using inspiration from fabric

kelley  I make things with needle and hook because I can't paint...the drive to create has been with me since birth...my heart and soul are soothed by the repetitive motions of hooking or hand stitching...I follow your blog...you're on my sidebar...

I'll be emailing the winners as well, but if I don't hear back by Tuesday, then I'll have to draw another winner! Hopefully I can get these mailed out the first of next week. A big thanks to everyone that participated!