Penny Haren Applique Quilt in Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Encouraging Words of the Day:

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. ~ Ephesians 2:10, NLT

"Amy's Creative Side" is hosting the Bloggers' Quilt Festival where we have the opportunity to share quilts we have made and be inspired by all all the great quilts entered. Each person can enter up to 2 quilts and there are multiple categories.

Although this is the 9th festival, it will be my 1st time entering. The quilts I've seen are awe-inspiring and although I am not making award-winning quilts, I have decided to enter two of my efforts.

Entering in the Applique Category:

This quilt was begun in January, 2011 and finished in January, 2013. It's made of 100% cotton which I purchased from various shops especially for this quilt. Every time I saw a turquoise/brown combination, I checked it out to see if it might work in some of the blocks. The blocks are machine pieced and appliqued on my Kenmore. The quilting was also done on my Kenmore.

Close-ups so you can see the applique:

The next photo shows the applique I chose for the middle. I flipped the corner of the quilt up so you can see the backing.

Quilt Stats:

Category: Applique

Pattern: "Pieced Applique - Intricate Blocks Made Easy" by Penny Haren

Dimensions: 60" x 60"

You can go to this link to check out the other entries in the "Bloggers' Quilt Festival."

 

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Crazy Quilt in Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Encouraging Words of the Day"

As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. ~ Psalm 138:8, NLT

"Amy's Creative Side" is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival where we have the opportunity to share quilts we have made and be inspired by all all the great quilts entered. Each person can enter up to 2 quilts and there are multiple categories.

 

Although this is the 9th festival, it will be my 1st time entering. The quilts I've seen are awe-inspiring and although I am not making award-winning quilts, I have decided to enter two of my efforts.

Entering in the Scrap Category:

I’ve been working on this crazy quilt on and off since 1982 when I started it. I sewed the 12 crazy quilt squares and then put them away. I had three growing children who were occupying all my time. I love being a mother and preferred to devote my time to them. Then they grew up and left home. That’s also a good thing, right? Don’t we raise them all those years so they can grow up, become independent, and leave us? Anyway, back to the crazy quilt - I would periodically dig out my squares and embroider something on them, then back in storage. When my husband and I started taking more road trips, I again dug them out and continued with the embroidery. Finally finished them and sewed the top together. Back in storage because I couldn’t decide what to use for a backing. Then I won a giveaway held by Julie at "My Quilt Diary." What I won was a panel of a "matoi" showing the standard and happy coat of firefighters during the Edo period. It turned out to be perfect for the back of my crazy quilt and now it is FINISHED after 20 years.

The following are close-ups of the blocks showing the embroidery:

This photo show the interesting Japanese "matoi" panel.

This quilt was begun in 1982 and finished in March, 2012. It is made of vintage damask, satin, velvet,vintage ties, lace and other assorted fabrics from my stash and my Mama's stash. The blocks are machine pieced and all the embellishments are hand-embroidery. The quilt was quilted on my Kenmore.

Quilt Stats:

Category: Scrap

Pattern: Crazy Quilt

Dimensions: 38" x 50"

Thanks so much for stopping by. Check out the Bloggers' Quilt Festival and enjoy taking a look at all the gorgeous quilts.

 

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One Flower Wednesday and Hexie Pincushion

Encouraging Words of the Day:

As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. ~ Psalm 138:8, NLT

"One-Flower Wednesday" today and you won't believe the flower I made.

"Big deal," you say? Actually, it's a small deal. I'm in a Hexie Bee and this month my hive mate asked for a 1/4-inch hexie. I could not believe it! It was actually harder to sew than the larger flowers because it's so hard to hang on to those little-bitty pieces. I took a photo to show you the comparison. The largest is a 1-inch hexie flower, the middle one is 1/2-inch, and on the right is the little 1/4-incher.

On another topic; I saw a pattern for a cute pincushion made of hexies. It seemed like a good idea so I prepared several hexies and started sewing them together. It looked easy enough so who even needs to read the instructions, right? Just sew the hexies togehter into a ball. I can do that. Wrong! I finally had to go find my son's soccer ball Would you believe that they are actually made of hexagons AND pentagons? Then I looked at the instructions again. Sure enough. Well, then I made some pentagons too and, surprise, surprise. It worked.

Notice the pink pentagon shape in the middle of the hexie flower.

Click on “One Flower Wednesday” to see flowers others have made.

 

That is all.

 

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Design Wall Monday Flower Ball

Encouraging Words of the Day:

Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles. ~ Psalm 119:50, NLT

It's Monday again and my design wall is coming long beautifully. We've been away from home for two weeks and my mailbox was full of beautiful hexie flowers for my "Flower Ball." These hexie flowers were made for me by my fellow members of "Get Your Hex On Bee #3. Here's what it looks like now. I just need one more flower to arrive.

Go here to view what others have on their design walls.

 

Now I need to sew these beautiful flowers together and I can hardly wait to get started. First I need to finish going through the boring part of the mail (bills, flyers, junk mail etc.) so for now...

that is all.

 

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Pile of Potholders and My Jane M8 and M9

Encouraging Words of the Day:

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. ~Psalm 37:4 NIV

I've been sewing like crazy making potholders to use as some of my Christmas gifts. I needed to learn to use my new embroidery machine so I made all sorts of centers for the potholders and now I've finished up most of them. I don't even know how many I made but here is a pile of them.

Counted them. There are 14 of them. Glad that's done.

Then I worked on "My Jane" for a while. Here are M-8 and M-9.

 M-8 went together easily via paper-piecing BUT,

 M-9 came out rather crooked, ok really crooked. It was also paper-pieced but those corners were horrible to make come out even. As you can see, mine are rather skewed. M-8 looks good and was done quickly. I worked on M-9 forever and it still looks strange. I will learn to love it because that's as good as it's getting.

We're leaving our beautiful Texas Hill Country ranch tomorrow. It's been a wonderful visit but we're headed back to west Texas tomorrow. I need to go get my prep work done so I can sew for the 6-hours it takes us to get back to El Paso.

That is all.

 

One Flower Wednesday

Encouraging Words of the Day:

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31, NLT

Yes, it's "One Flower Wednesday" and I'm barely checking in at the last minute. We've had family visiting since Friday and they left today so now I'm rushing to find two little flowers I made on our trip out to the ranch. I just finished taking their photo and here they are:

Click on “One Flower Wednesday” to see flowers others have made.

 

Short post. We enjoyed our family tremendously. My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew are so funny, entertaining, and fun to have around but now they're gone and I'm off to sew a little and have a glass of wine.

That is all.

 

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Snakes Roaming About on One Flower Wednesday

Encouraging Words of the Day:

You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. ~ Psalm 139:4-5, NLT

We're at our little ranch in the Texas Hill Country and enjoying the beautiful weather. It's been a dry spring so we don't have many wildflowers out. We did find this evil character out today though. My husband killed this 50-inch rattlesnake this morning.

It's "One-Flower Wednesday" and I have these flowers to show you. They're the parts of a block for the quilt-along I've joined. Here's what they look like...

and here's what they should look like when I finish sewing them together.

I also have these lovely flowers that I received from my partner in the "Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap." Dorrit sent me these from Denmark. Thanks so much, Dorrit. They're so lovely and I will enjoy sewing them into my "Flowers of the World GFG."

Click on “One Flower Wednesday” to see flowers others have made.

That is all.

 

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