BEADY BAG LADIES!

Columbus Modern Quilters + Instagram Donations =

"BEADS OF COURAGE BAGS"

An "Arts In Medicine" program that provides handmade bags 

and various beads to children with serious illness.  

 Serving many children and hospitals.   Each time a

child reaches a milestone in their treatments

they receive a "bead" for their "bag".

While we sew the bags, others groups make the beads

and many donate to support this charity. 

Read all about Beads of Courage here!

I reached out on Instagram thru  "get you quilty wish granted"  

asking IG peeps to send me novelty prints for this effort.

What happened was amazing!!!

Box after box of fabric began appearing on my porch.

All this was donated, all shipped to me, free of charge!

50 pounds of fabric and lots materials to use for the drawstrings!

Even some pretty yarn showed up...

Cbus Modern Quilters planned a sew-in for January  
I cut kits for them to have a good start!

100 kits and lots of fabric not even touched.

The following pictures were taken the day of the 
 CbusMQ gals...please let me know if any are yours
so I can credit your photo.   

A local library conference room was set up!

(just a corner of it here)
with machines and food and lots of fun!

Prepared kits and supplies stacked up and ready to sew!



At the end of the day...these bags are ready to be delivered
to Nationwide Children's Hospital!



A ton of fabric was not touched at this event...
but since its a year long effort we are set!

Thank you Columbus Modern Quilters!
A special shout out to Allison Evans,
our charity coordinator!
To all those who came to sew, brought food
and to those who donated fabric and supplies
many children will smile....because of YOU!

Wilmington LQS

When I travel I luv to check out LQS 

and then tell you about them

I begin with their web site followed by a phone call  

Gotta make sure they are open!

While I was at the beach this winter I checked out

Wilmington, NC and found...

This shop has it all...macines, patterns, books and

MODERN FABRICS!

like these Sun Prints by Allison Glass

Musta just arrived as the rubber bands

were still around the fabric bolts!

 yumminess! everywhere!

KONA Solids

MANY Modern Fabric Designers lined shelves

and look at these FQS

Novelty fabrics and look at these Farm Animals!

Lots of Low Volume

If you like batiks...they had some of those too!

and some traditional prints!

A great Sale Area!

I needed some "Sphere" Zen Chic prints 

for the top I was working on.

FOUND IT.  ON SALE!

Other fun pieces I could not resist.  

Check out the Flamingo Pink called "Cora"

KONA's 2017 Color of the year!

Porto birds and some fun Sheep!

As we were leaving my husband Phil pointed out this sign...

Good place all around!

I didn't get to go back for the Superbow Sunday Sale...

but EVERYTHING IN THE STORE was

30% off!

So where is a favorite LQS you have discovered?

SWOONING OVER A STAR DESIGN

 My hat always goes off to the pattern designers out there...

even the unspoken ones from 100 years ago.  

Take for instance, there is a block called "Swoon" 
by Thimbleblossoms
 I have the pattern and this is the block... 

Sometimes the tiniest change in color placement or
cutting a piece of fabric to place in a design
makes it new!
I have to chuckle when I see all the excitement

over a block that has been around for years 
like this...

Star of Bethlehem

I decided to give the "Swoon Block" a try
by making a mini quilt using my  

Charley Harper stash fabrics.

 I studied the pattern, did a little math (I hate math)
and my process began. 

Diagram A - Original pattern - cut pieces

Diagram B - My pieces - some one large piece vs 2 small pieces

Diagram A - Swoon cut pieces - Several HST

Diagram B - My cut pieces - 2 HST

The Chickadee birds fit the center

and some coordinating HST

 Zen Chic "Comma" mustard and dots plays well!

 

The dark teal flower print was up next...

I just began building it out as I went...

using more of the Zen Chic with it.

Here is where my stash FQs decided 

how to finish the  "white" area.

 diagonal corners are different and now my deign. 

I marked the sizes I had to cut to make my fabric work

I made four sections sets using the 

Charlie Harper leaves and Gray flowers

The Kwilty Pleasures "hack" uses fewer HST 

I sewed it all together, added a small blue border then
quilted it with an elongated serpentine stitch.

In the end....I like it and not sure what I will call it...
other than done!
 

BASKETCASE

 If you know me...I can be a basket case...

  I can get behind in my posts but my intentions are good.

Maybe if I stayed home a while...nah I like my adventures!

One of my favorite swaps in 2016 was 

The Basket Case Swap sponsored on Instagram.

My partner, Janet Smith (@bayleebarkley) 

loves Tula Pink...found this in my stash.

I decided to make a one hour basket...

added some simple quilting...

The finished basket turned out great!

She also mentioned Cotton and Steel was a favorite fabric...

I did a little research and found she enjoys paper piecing.

So I made a paper piecing tool pouch.

Here is the entire package I sent.  

With paper piecing tools in the case.

( small cutting board/rotary cutter)

 and a fun flying geese pincushion.

and of course my partner Jaia @handmadebyjaia

 NAILED.IT

Sending me all this Ghastliness!

I should have made a resolution for 2017 to keep on top of my posts...

but I am not a resolution kinda gal...

better late than NEVER

and hopefully you enjoy them regardless of the timing!

HOME GROWN and HOME SEWN

Cincinnati, Ohio has something Home Grown and Home Sewn! 

 A local quilt shop that you should check out!  

They are located in Western Cincinnati and you can find all

there information here, on their website.

Its a family affair with Diane, Tom and Abbey running the shop.

A nice mix of traditional and modern styles and fabrics.

Yummy Christmas / Holiday fabrics

Here is a quilt finished with some "traditional" prairie points 

and big stitch quilting using "modern fabrics

Mini charm packs were used to make the prairie points.

and here it is in a more traditional fabric and style

but you get the idea!

Its a happy place and definitely deserves a visit!