Des Moines Area Quilt Guild Show Quilt...stunning!

 

Is this quilt stunning or what?!? This is the show quilt for this year (the raffle quilt). Our quilt show is October 3-6 this year and the theme is...Welcome to the World of Quilting, the Welcoming Pineapple is the theme block. If any of you live anywhere near Des Moines, and you have not been to our show yet, you really should take a few days and come see it for yourself! Our guild teams up with AQS for their show and ours is right along side. So, roughly 400 quilts in our show and about that many in the AQS show. Two shows in one and many, many (200ish usually!) great vendors! You can find info on the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild website about our portion of the show, and the AQS site for their info. Let me know if you plan on being here!

Take care,

Missie

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My House on the Hill

Just finished up revamping My House on the Hill in Valdani pearl cotton 12! This is a mini quilt, 12" square. These are so fun to lay around the house or hang on the wire hangers that are so popular now. I have several different little quilts hanging out of baskets and laid out on coffee tables. So nice to finish up another project! This pattern is available at Traditional Primitives HERE if you are interested!

Take Care,

Missie

PS... Here's a nice give away I stumbled on...cute blog!

COBBLESTONECORNER AND GRANDMAS BISQUITS, 50 FOLLOWERS GIVE AWAY! ENDING JULY 25TH...

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One project off my list! Another one started!

The quilting is done on this project! It was a bit overwhelming at times as I could only do a block or so at a time. My arms got so tired doing all those tiny circles, but about the time I finished my arms were getting used to the motion! The pink and purple blocks were not quite as overwhelming for me, so I felt I have improved much with this project!! For those of you who don't know me, I am a relatively new longarm quilter with this machine. I used to use a longarm on a frame, but when I purchased my own machine, I had to retrain my brain and arms to move the fabric and not the machine. It took me a few practice quilts to get used to it!

I know you can see the pebbles on the light pink and I do hope you can see the feathers on the darker blocks.  The plan for the darker blocks changed from my original post on this quilt.  We women do have the right to change our minds!  Ha!

To try to keep in theme with the pebbles, I decided to use the circular border fabric as my guide for the quilting in the borders. This is my first "fancy" quilting on my new machine. This would not have been possible on the other machine I was using and it has been so fun to get out of the panto quilting box! I am looking for possible quilting designs everywhere now! LOL. Filling each block with design possibilities is exciting and is a new way for me to think about quilting. I have purchased quite a few stencils but so far I have done free motion quilting. As a reminder from past posts, this quilt was made by girls in my Appliqué Group. The Des Moines Area Quilt Guild has a charity auction every August. Each small group donates a basket full of goodies or a quilt or top to be auctioned off. The money goes to 3 different charities. We raise quite a bit of money each year...in the range of $10,000 to $14,000! We also have a "mall in the hall" where members can bring sewing related items they no longer want. It is lots of fun and I am amazed at members generosity!

Remember the English Paper Piecing project I showed a while back? I am making progress on it and Sunday afternoon I found time to get to the borders. The Des Moines Quilt show theme this year is all about pineapples, so my last few designs have had pineapples in them.

While we were traveling on the gulf coast, my youngest started a conversation about palm trees and do pineapples grow on them. We had a good time using the iPhones to learn about how a pineapple plant looks. This design imitates a pineapple plant...much greener at the bottom rather than the top! (Looks like the bottom left leaves are the only ones that are in the correct place)

This is how the Punchneedle quilt is coming along. I finally found just the right background color and I am very pleased. This week I will work on some appliqué or stitching in the border. I am calling this one A Prim Welcome.

I have also been working on redoing My House on the Hill in all Valdani threads. This should be done by the weekend...I hope! Those vines are tiny...1/8" or so, but my method of sewing them on is very simple! Anyone can do it. I promise!

Have a wonderful day!

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A fun day with my Melanie!

My middle daughter loves to bake. Quite a while back she did a tasting for a future bride and groom and they chose her cupcakes over 6 other bakers to do their wedding! I offered to be around to help on the big day...WOW did we have a busy and fun day last Saturday!

She was the director and I was her assistant and we worked well as a team to prepare 125 cupcakes, one Bride and Groom cake,

And 35 mini layer cakes! ( those blue ones were trouble! Too moist to cut easily...but we finally got it going smoothly )

 

The Bride and Groom really had a cute vision and sense of humor with the decorations and flavors they chose. We hope they were happy with them..

 

Orange Pop flavor, S'more flavor... Caramel &Chocolate...Red Velvet and a few others...mmmm good!

 

 

And cute little toppers with cute names...Up Up and Away, the Library and others...

I was a proud Mama Saturday! She did a great job...I had plans of sewing that day, but this was such fun! Sewing came on Sunday afternoon...will post some pics tomorrow...

Take care and have a great evening!

 

 

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Happy Belated Holiday and thank goodness for cooler weather!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! This is an antique quilt I saved a picture of long ago. It's one of my favorite patriotic quilts of yesteryear.

We just got home from a trip to see family and attend a wedding in hot hot Indiana! My goodness it was HOT and humid. I feel for all the folks stuck in the heat wave with no power all these days. So glad cooler and less humid weather arrived today! We attended a wedding Saturday and we were sure glad the church and reception were nice and cool! Always fun to see a new couple in love getting married!

I finally have time to post a good pic of my wool Quilt, Charmed Beginnings, made from Blackberry Primitives wool. It's lovely wool to work with.  All pieces are appliquéd. No piecing except for putting the blocks together. This is a pretty quick quilt to put together as wool appliqué is so easy since there are no seams to turn under. It is hand quilted in primitive stitches with Valdani 12 pearle cotton. Hmmm...gives me the itch for another wool project!

We came home to blooming hydrangeas...the only thing that was not burned up in the heat! I'm glad to have enjoyed these a few days.

I hope your weather is pleasant where ever you are...we are pleasant in Iowa the last few days! Take care!

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Banned From the Sewing Room!

Well, it's a very hot morning here in Iowa...I had plans of getting some sewing done in the cool basement sewing room this morning...ahhh, it will have to wait! There is currently a floor full of teenage gals sleeping in late! LOL! I guess I am banned from my sewing room this morning. We have a big open room down there and my sewing area is down at one end. So I didn't wake them I turned on the fan, found a good movie and did a little more Punchneedle upstairs this morning. This coaster went really quick... Started and finished punching this morning! I ran out of glue so will finish it completely another day. The Valdani thread looks so nice with it's subtle shading.

The design was based on the circle block on the top row of my quilt, In the Orange Grove. It's bright and colorful, yet it's also got that prim feel I love. The colors mimic those in the quilt. When it hangs in my living room I will surely enjoy this coaster along with the quilt! Take a look at the pattern on my website HERE.   The coaster pattern will be listed soon! I plan to make a group pattern offering 4 coasters to coordinate with this quilt. Won't be long and they will be available!

Have a cool relaxing day! Take care!