And the winner is

Unfortunately, lucky #57 is a no reply blogger.  Her blog is called TheStylishHome. SO...she has until 9am tomorrow to contact me with her name and address.  If I don't hear from her by that time, I will draw another number.

A reminder - please make sure you are not a "no reply" blogger before you enter a contest unless you provide your email information in the body of your reply.  Thanks!!

Welcome Wool Lovers!

When Denise first sent out the request for bloggers who would be interested in participating in this blog hop, I was a little hesitant. I have sewn garments with wool but have never done any handwork or quilting with wool. While I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into penny rugs, they would not look appropriate in my decor and that was the only thing that came to mind when I thought about working with wool.  I was delighted to see a wool project in one of my favorite magazines

Quilt-it...today, September/October 2012, page 35

 so I decided to jump in!

I used the patterns that were supplied in the article but did a few things differently. I used freezer paper to copy the patterns and ironed them onto the wool.

I used a fusible interfacing from Pellon (987F) since I always have plenty of that on hand.  I fused the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the wool leaf pieces and sewed right sides together

after inserting the jute stem pieces.

Another diversion from the pattern was that I used my open toe free motion foot to do the thread painting on the leaves. My design for the veins on the leaves is a bit more "stylized" than indicated in the pattern and is a whole lot more "me".

I think they turned out pretty cute.

If you are looking for beautiful wool pieces, I highly recommend Prairie Point Junction. They have gorgeous colors in 12"x18" that are very reasonably priced.

If you would like a chance to win a set of these coasters, please leave a comment.  I will pick a winner next Monday (September 30). I would love for you to follow my blog but it isn't a requirement!

Here is a list of other blog hop participants today. Please be sure to check out each of them.

Monday, September 23

CJ Stitching and Blooms

Negligent Style

Sweet P

Racie Baby

Patchouli Moon Studio

The Raspberry Rabbits

Quick quilt!

The past two weeks have been a little stressful. When I am feeling stressed I tend to sew more. It really does help me to relax. This weekend the company that I work for was sold. I haven't been sleeping well but I have been very productive. In the past two weeks I have made a sweet girly baby quilt top, pieced a table runner, made a canvas pillow cover, sewed a tote bag for a friend headed to Jamaica and have almost finished crocheting a shawl to keep at the office. (By the way - I still have my job and things at the office are supposed to remain status quo for at least a year.)

Last week I purchased one of the daily specials from Missouri Star Quilt Company - a layer cake from Windham Fabrics called "12 Days of Christmas" designed by Kate McRostie. I wanted to try one of Jenny's tutorials for a layer cake. It is "Double Slice". It is fast and really easy.  I cut the fabrics on Saturday night and put this together today.

It still needs a couple of borders. I am going to use Kona Snow for the small inner border and then the green scroll fabric for the outer border. I had to order the outer border fabric since none of the nearby LQS have it in their stores. I was a little disappointed by the layer cake in that there are only 11 fabrics in the collection. That meant a lot of repetition. I will certainly make this quilt again but will use a Moda layer cake which usually have significantly more variety their collections.

If you need a quick quilt, check out the YouTube video. Jenny does great tutorials!

Working with wool

Did you notice the new button in my sidebar "Crazy for Wool"? I am participating in a blog hop. This is my very first time working with wool. Happily when I picked up my copy of "Quilt-It...today" there were patterns for wool coasters. I was delighted because I had no idea what I was going to do with wool!

"Quilt-it...today" Issue 6

These are the pieces I ordered from Prairie Point Junction. They have over 100 colors from which to choose. These are the ones that I chose.

So pretty!

Please be sure to visit my blog on Monday, 9/23 and see how my project turned out. By the way, I will be giving away the coasters I make!

Pinwheels in progress

I took advantage of the charm square special pricing at Green Fairy Quilts last week. (10 packages of charm squares for $69 and no shipping). That is significantly lower than I pay even with a 25% discount at Burkholder's so I had to do it! I ordered several Christmas collections and a gorgeous new collection from Sandy Gervais called Soho Chic.

I am using a technique for making pinwheels that I saw on a You Tube video from Missouri Star Quilt Company. You place two squares right sides together and then stitch around all four sides with a quarter inch allowance. You then cut the squares twice diagonally from corner to corner ending up with 4 half square triangle blocks.

A pack like this

ends up looking like a pile of these

Hopefully in a couple of days the pile will turn into a table runner!