Fall 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival

Its time for the Fall 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival at AMY'S CREATIVE SIDE.

The quilt I want to enter in the festival is my red and white double nine patch quilt that I named "Razzle Dazzle".This quilt is named Razzle Dazzle because the colors are our favorite team, N. C. State's colors. The name comes from what my husband yells when NC State does a trick play or a good play. You know when you hear him yell "Razzle Dazzle", that something good has happened. Its too bad that this year I haven't heard that yell...at...all...

Anyway, I love this picture of the quilt taken with the cotton field in the background.



And hanging on the clothesline:



If you would like to see lots of beautiful quilts be sure to visit Amy's Creative side during the Fall 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival.

WIP Wednesday

Its WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Here's what I've been working on in the sewing room.

1. The first block in the Bloggers' Block of the Month (BOM). Since this BOM lasts a year and will finish up next year right before Christmas... and I've been wanting to make a Christmas quilt, I decided to make the BOM's from Christmas fabric.

These are some fabrics I used for the first block.



The first block



2. The Jacob's Ladder Quilt Along. I've finished 16 blocks so far.





3. Blueberri Breezes. I pin basted the quilt sandwich and started free motion quilting it.

One More Star for a Soldier

I was able to make another star for the Fallen Soldier's Quilt. For more information see my previous post.

I think I'll mail the three I've made this weekend today and then try to make a few more before the deadline.

Stars for a Soldier

If you would like to make one or more Star Blocks to help with the construction of quilts to be made in memory of a fallen soldier, CLICK HERE for more information.

I have been trying to find some appropriate fabric and then I looked into an envelope of fabric sent to me by a blog reader (Thanks Coleen!) and was so excited to find this "Firecracker" fabric by Connecting Threads. It was right up under my nose the whole time.

The blocks can be made in either 8 1/2 or 12 1/2 inch size. The larger block above is the same block that I made a quilt from using denim and plaids several years ago. The block is called Party Hats and the pattern can be found HERE.
Here's the quilt I made using this block.



My thanks go to Freda of THE ADVENTURES OF THE EMPRESS OF THE UNIVERSE who has made several blocks for this cause and has more information HERE.

I hope to make a couple more blocks this afternoon after returning from visiting my mother in the hospital. :o)

One Day at a Time

Well, its been a topsy turvy week!

Update on Mama: Her Nephrologist made the decision that she does need to go on dialysis and so today the surgery to insert the Portacath will be done. I'm not sure how much longer she will be in the hospital, but I suspect at least 2 or 3 more days. As much as I dread this new burden for her, I realize that it is a blessing that dialysis exists to help her live a much longer life. So, "it is what it is!".

Last weekend I started 3 mug rugs for gifts. My thoughts were that these would be small portable projects for sewing down the back of the binding, while waiting at the hospital this week. After quilting them and sewing on the binding, these 3 fit into a gallon zipper bag along with a spool of thread, small scissors and a couple of pins. So far I haven't done any of the sewing on the back, but I may today while Mama is in surgery.



I couldn't resist showing you just a couple more pictures of "Razzle Dazzle". I was finally able to download pictures to my computer. Sometimes I think I should have named this quilt "Troublemaker". When trying to take pictures of it, we broke one clothesline due to the wind and here I am fighting with it.



Miraculously, the wind completely stopped for about 2 seconds and I got one picture of it being still!



Ok, I promise that I won't show you any more pictures of this quilt! In my defense, I just don't finish that many bed size quilts, so I need to make the most of it.

Bedazzled

Razzle Dazzle



I guess its appropriate for a cotton quilt to have a photo shoot in front of a cotton field. Kind of like getting back to its roots.

Jacob's Ladder Continues

My ironing board cover shows the wear of pressing many quilt blocks! Here are some parts of three Jacob's Ladder blocks in progress.



A few more blocks finished.



I'm really making use of some fabric that are either truly vintage or have a vintage look.

Razzle Dazzle Quilting Progress

After setting up my sewing area for quilting I got down to the business of Free Motion Quilting "Razzle Dazzle". I cleaned the machine last weekend. I filled several bobbins. I set up the card table to the left of my chair. The needle was new, since I had broken the old one a couple of days ago. The quilt was pin basted.

So, I was off to the quilting races!

Here's one corner of the quilt.



I finished about two thirds of the quilting and will work on it for an hour or two each night this week. I hope to bind it and post the finished quilt soon.