More Secrets and NTT

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, y'all!  I've been working on more secret gift sewing for the past few days, but decorating for Christmas has also taken up lots of my time.  We host a Christmas party every year on the first Saturday of December, so we have to hit the ground running after Thanksgiving to make sure everything is done in time.  Since I can't show you the happenings in my sewing space, we'll just have to make do with some photos of my three (very different) Christmas trees.  Our main family tree-

This vintage aluminum tree, decorated with a peppermint theme, is in my sewing room. This window also happens to face the front of the house.  In the daytime, the sunlight bounces off of the silver branches and throws a million sparkles in the room.  At night though, I love to turn on the old color wheel and watch the tree change colors!  Last night, I saw an older couple walking, and they stopped to watch the tree change for a few minutes with smiles on their faces.  It made my heart happy to know that it was probably nostalgic for them.

The LSU tree in my kitchen is my third tree, and it is brand new this year.  I've wanted an LSU tree for several years, and finally found a super slim white tree that would fit in the space perfectly without impeding the flow around the table.

Even though they are time consuming and take away some of my sewing time, I just love putting my trees up every year.  Thanks for the indulgence in allowing me to share them.  I just started a brand new quilt that is NOT a secret, so I'm looking forward to showing some progress on that soon.

Before we get to last week's features, I owe you two winners from the Black Friday post giveaways!  LouLou's Fabric Shop generously offered up two $25 gift certificates, and the winners are Joan and Chris- comment numbers 10 and 20!

 

Congrats to both of you!  Now, let's check out some of the eye candy from last week!  This Ugly Christmas Sweater quilt is by Tanya Quilts in CO, and it is awesomely kitschy!

This quilt is by Sew Preeti Quilts, and the colors are so happy!

And y'all know I can't resist a rainbow!  This bit of fabulousness is by Myra at Busy Hands Quilts.

Wow!  Just WOW- y'all really rock!  I can't wait to see what you share this week.  Let's party!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Give Thanks and Be Merry! (and NTT)

Happy almost Thanksgiving, y'all!  Wild Thing and I have been cooking up a storm over here today, prepping for tomorrow's dinner;  he's a great helper in the kitchen.  It will be just the three of us this year (we stay home every other year), and I'm looking forward to a quiet holiday with dinner, football, and Christmas decorating.  Along with holiday preparations, more secret sewing has been keeping me busy these days.

I'm posting a few hours early today, because frankly, with everything going on, I'm afraid if I wait until this evening, I'll forget!

At last week's party, I shared my set of three appliqué Christmas towels.  I actually had an extra towel, and made this little cutie to go with them.  As much as I love them (and I really do), I can say with certainty, that tracing and cutting out all of those shapes in any sort of mass quantity would not be my cup of tea.  It is so tedious!  No doubt that I'm just a quilter at heart!

I have also been busy teaching.  Last weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity to teach a couple of classes and present a trunk show for the Uncommon Threads Guild retreat, right here in the Memphis area.  Traveling is awesome, but it's nice to stay close to home too.  I taught my Carrelage pattern, and there were so many amazing color combinations chosen- even a couple with darker backgrounds, which really gives the quilt a different feel.

I also taught Intro to Improvisation, which is always a blast.  It's a joy to help quilters learn how fun it is to let go a little bit and just sew with reckless abandon, and it's always rewarding to see baskets of scraps turned into such beauty.

I would love to teach your guild, and I still have some dates available in 2017.  Send me an email for more information!

I know everyone's getting ready for Thanksgiving (here in the US, anyway!), so without further ado, here are a few bits of eye candy from last week's party.

This gorgeous Fair Isle quilt top is by Celine at Espritpatch.

Deb at Frugal Little Bungalow shared this sweet orange peel quilt.

and finally, this wall hanging is by Lori at Crossquilt.  Lori is in my guild, and I had the pleasure of seeing this in person at our meeting on Sunday.  Before the meeting, I was actually disappointed to see it in her bag, which I know doesn't make sense, so let me explain.  Our guild does a Christmas gift swap every year, where we play the Dirty Santa/Scrooge game (the game goes by many names, but it's the game where you can steal gifts from each other).  There are some drool-worthy handmade goodies swapped every year- ornaments, pillows, wall hangings, etc.  I was fervently hoping that this might make it into this year's game, and my hopes were dashed when she brought it to the meeting.  I knew that if she was showing it to all of us, it wasn't meant to be.  Drat.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow, enjoying the time with family and friends, and counting all of your blessings.  I plan to be doing just that.

It's almost time to link up your quilty goodness from this week, but before that happens, I wanted to let you know another bit of news.  We all know that Friday is Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  If you need a special bit of fabric to sew a perfect gift, or even to give as a gift, be on the lookout for my monthly sponsor post on Friday morning, with amazing sales and coupons from my sponsoring shops.  I can't reveal the deals before then, but let me just tell you- you won't want to miss out!  Now, let's party!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Sewing Some Cheer and NTT

Happy NTT, friends!  'Tis the season for making Christmas things, and I've been having a ball using my scraps to create these fun appliqué tea towels.  These are flour sack towels, and they are just plain white, and pretty inexpensive; a perfect canvas for my favorite pretty bits.

I am in love with the way these turned out.  You can't see it very well, but the background is actually fabric printed with the sheet music for "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."  I've had this fabric for ages, and it adds so much dimension.  I'm also pleased with the fact that I drew most of my own templates for this project (all except the dove and star).  This is a selfish sewing project, and they are going to look so happy and festive in my kitchen when I decorate for Christmas.  That's set to start this weekend.  Woohoo!

Last week's party rocked!  Mary at Fleur de Lis Quilts linked up this fun quilt-

Mommy's Projects linked up this soft and pretty Wildwood quilt-

and this lovely quilt is my Anneli at Chromatobalomata-

 Have you been doing any holiday sewing- either for yourself or gifts?  Even if your sewing isn't holiday related, I'll bet it's awesome!  Time to show me what you've got!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Needle and Thread Thursday Time!

Happy NTT, y'all!  My secret sewing has been a success, and I am pleased to call this one finished!

If you missed my last post, this one is for my wild thing for Christmas, and it was made entirely in secret.  That's a little bit hard to do around here because he's pretty observant.  Even though the sewing happened while he was at a retreat this weekend and finished while he was at school, every single incriminating scrap had to be thrown away in the outside trash.  He can spot LSU colors from a mile away.

 I pieced the backing with some leftovers, of course, and framed all of the busy pattern with a solid Kona Purple binding.

A snuggle with a quilt is almost as good as a hug from mom (though I still steal those when I can), and it makes my heart happy to know that he will treasure this quilt for years and years to come.

So, before we link up this week, let's check out some of the awesomeness from our last party.  Carole at From My Carolina Home linked up this perfectly pretty Autumn Jubilee table topper-

This lovely is from Myra at Busy Hands Quilts, and it is her brand new pattern, called Castle Dreams.

I love this In the Pink quilt from Kris at Sew Sunshine.

and finally, I cannot help myself this week.  I have to show this improv stunner, called Crown of Orchids by Jess at Quilty Habit.

There is so much fantastic eye candy every single week!  Time to link up your latest projects!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

What Momma's Boy Wants

Our wild thing is an only child, and we have worked hard through the years to make sure that he knows, that while he is dearly loved, he is not the center of the universe.  That sometimes means that even when we can afford to give him something he wants, we choose to make him work to pay for it himself because we want him to appreciate what he has, and value more than just possessions.  When he asks Momma for a new quilt though (which doesn't happen very often), all bets are off.

At the ripe old age of twelve, my big boy still snuggles with me, but only on his own terms (and even that's a big secret).   My heart melts to see him wrapped up in a quilt I've made, and I'm sure that won't change, no matter how old he gets.  So, when he asked me for an LSU quilt, I got busy planning;  and when he was away at a youth retreat this weekend, I took that opportunity to get busy sewing!

He got home from the retreat yesterday afternoon, and I got all of the evidence hidden away.  I will be working like a madwoman over the next few days to finish this quilt while he is at school, and pretty soon it will be wrapped up for Christmas!

I Lost My Mind For a Minute (and NTT)

Happy NTT, y'all!  This is the edition where I show you everything I possibly can, without actually revealing the quilt that I made from the scrappy rainbow improv blocks I showed last week.  The quilt is for publication, so even though that fact is a big personal hooray, being secretive still stinks.  So, we'll just have to make do with a few peeks.

You all know that ordinarily, I use all of my leftovers on the backs of my quilts.  Well, when I'm quilting from my scrap jars, sometimes I'm at a loss.  Rainbow stripes to the rescue!  I love making a rainbow stripe backing for a scrappy quilt.  It pulls in all of the colors, so I feel like it matches without competing with the front, and best of all, it is a perfect stash buster.  These kinds of backings are great for using up fabrics that are more difficult to blend, like that goldenrod fabric (third from the top).  It's been sitting in my stash for awhile because it's too yellow to pair with oranges, and too orange to be considered a yellow.  It adds tons of depth to a rainbow though!

I also want to point out the quilting on this, because it is by far the element of the quilt of which I am most proud (read: the part that almost drove me insane).  Look at how tight the quilting is on the backing (the yellow shows the density really well), and now check out the close up.

Seriously.  Remember when I said once that you would never see me do matchstick quilting?  I must have taken leave of my senses, because this is almost as tightly quilted as matchsticks.  All. over. the. entire. quilt (54"x64").  I used an ENTIRE spool of Aurifil 50 wt. thread!  That's almost twelve hours of free-motion quilting, folks; which I know some of you do regularly, but it's entirely new territory for me.

The quarter is there for scale, but it's difficult to really tell how small this quilting is.  The space in the photo is only about 5 inches wide.   By the way, the background is Kona Shale, and I like the subtle contrast of the white thread.  I love the result, but I don't know that I'll ever quilt something this densely again.  Never say never though!

The binding is super scrappy, containing 27 different fabrics in varying lengths.  You can't really tell in the rolled quilt photo, but the binding is arranged in a rainbow as well (of course).  It's not a close-up, but you can see that on the full backing shot above.  I love how this quilt turned out, and though it will be awhile, I can't wait for you to see it!

Last week's party had some major eye candy, so let's check out the highlights!  This fun, traveling bee quilt is by Alison at Little Bunny Quilts.

The Lilac Cat shared this lovely Log Cabin Hybrid mini.  I love the layout of colorful and low volume fabrics in this one.  At only twelve inches square, it packs quite a punch!

and Jen's Crafts and Quilts Scrapbook linked up this sweet little Apple Patch baby quilt.

So, how about it?  I know that something you're working on is making you do a happy dance right now.  Let's link those projects up!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)