Catching up with a finish

So late Sunday night, I put the final stitches on the binding of this quilt. Yesterday, I washed and dried it and photographed it. 

The only thing left is the label!

I'm named this quilt Linked Together. 

The fabric line is Sunkissed by Sweetwater and the background is Kona white. The block pattern is called Crossroads. You can find it here. 

I played around with the layout of the blocks and rather than setting them all in the same direction, I rotated them 90º. That created some small negative space squares and some larger. I FMQ feathered wreaths in each of those spaces and straight lined quilted in each link. 

The back is pieced with ALL the left over pieces of Sunkissed and a neutral gray that I found. I left just enough of Sunkissed to bind the quilt. 

The quilt finishes at 58" x 67". It will be gifted in a couple of weeks! 

I also finished my June Art Journal calendar. Yes, I am a little behind but weddings and babies seem to be keeping me busy. 

(Another baby quilt hopefully ready to show soon.)

For June I tried something completely different.

Before:

After:

I really enjoyed this format as it gave me more room for entries and stamping. I was inspired by Annie and her Art Journals. If you don't read her blog, you should go there and get inspired!  Also, this inspiration found on Pinterest. It was so easy to make! I think I may use this format again. Hope you like it!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts.

Quick post

Spring Break has officially started in the School District I work. I don't typically go away over break but this year is different and I am so excited! I will be visiting my DD2 and SIL in Austin, TX. 

I am traveling there alone leaving my DH home. To keep him busy so he won't miss me too much (hehe), he is going to be giving my sewing room a fresh coat of paint and some other updates. 

This past week I have been packing up everything {boy do I have a lot of stuff.} I left a few things to the last minute because I really couldn't see not sewing for very long.  So you ask, what did you work on? 

A couple of new pin cushions! 

I am aware that there has been much written and discussed about Pinterest among bloggers lately. I admit that I do enjoy it and have gotten a lot of inspiration from the site. I will not be making any judgements yet and will try to keep calm. I only pin if I have made sure the link to the original site is working and the proper credit is given. To be honest, I have been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to spend on this time consuming addition. 

Sew until further notice...I will be working on my hexies.

For those of you interested, I also added a subscribe to button so you can now get notice of when I post. Look on my left sidebar. 

You are sew very appreciated!

Progress has been made....

Yes it has! Only 2 more blocks need to be made on my personnel challenge quilt and all 20 will be finished!  These blocks have HRT [half rectangle triangles] which are a bit tedious to make. Just sayin...Hopefully I'll get the last 2 pieced tonight and then work on sewing the top together! 

In the meantime, I have purchased some backing fabric and batting for my Birdie Stitchery BOM quilt. I thought I wanted some silvery gray for the backing but came home with something entirely different. I will be piecing the back to include the extra block I embroidered. No pictures yet. 

I also cut out 180 4 1/2" squares and 360 2 1/2" squares for the Scraptacular Picnic quilt I'm starting as part of the Sew Scrap Along hosted by Jodi over at Pleasant Home. These were cut all from my scrap bins [not my stash]. 

After I missed a few FNSI, I once again will be joining the fun this Friday night. You can go here to sign up. Thanks Bobbi for hosting this month! 

Here are a couple of dishes I have been cooking up.

Potato, Bacon [Canandian], and Corn Chowder

A very colorful and tasty meal.

Beef and Mushroom Ragu

Both of these recipes are pinned on my Pinterest Board -Looks so Yummy!

A reveal, some finishes, and the winners!

I have a bit to share today as it has been busy around here. 

First up is my reveal. I joined my first Flickr swap for a Little Quilt 

about 2 months ago. I found this great quote on Pinterest 

that I wanted to design my quilt around. 

I can now reveal my quilt since my swap partner has received it! 

It went all the way to Sweden!

And this is the cute Little Twister Quilt I received from Karen (also know as sewgentle.)

I don't have a twister ruler but I may just need to get one. Love the tessellation!

Next is a wedding gift quilt that has been WIP for quite a while. My nephew and wife got married in Sweden just 3 weeks after our daughter's wedding.  Since many family and friends (including us) couldn't go to Sweden, they were going to plan a reception/party here at a later date. Although the top and backs were pieced, without a date, it was easy for me to make this quilt a MUF. 

Two weeks ago we got the invite for the wedding party. Yikes! only 3 weeks to finish, all while the Wantobe Campaign was finishing up, the Ghastlie Blog Hop was just starting and I was participating in the Little Quilt Swap! 

This quilt is rather large and to sandwich it required some furniture removal from my living room. Thanks to my DH for doing the rearranging, I was able to sandwich the quilt and pin baste it in an evening. I decided to FMQ ribbon circles around the rings and then choose a design to go in the white middle. I also FMQ a ribbon along the border.

Now it is ready to go to the newlyweds. 

I also have been doing some knitting and finished a little throw but since this post is getting quite lengthy and you are probably wanting to know who won my giveaway, I'll leave that finish for another post. 

So without further delay the winner of the pincushion is:

Linda from Buzzing and Bumbling...

And the little zippered bag goes to:

Nancy from Coeur d'Alene! 

Congratulations Sistahs! I will be emailing you shortly.