In my creative mind, out comes this....

this is a sampling of some of the quilts I have created,
Madame Samm put this collection together for my Banner

Hi, I'm Carol, better known to some as mamacjt and I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining you on Stash Manicure. I've been blown away by the talent I've seen here!!!

I'm a relatively new quilter having made my very first quilt in August of 2008 because I needed a quick baby boy gift. Prior to that, I ran the gambit of passions such as crochet, knitting, beading, card making, doll making, aprons, but mainly sewing kids clothes.....specifically, little girls English smocked dresses. In fact, when our upstairs guest room became stuffed to the gills to overflowing, (with clothes for a someday granddaughter), I knew I had to find another outlet for my creativity.

So, that's when I discovered Flickr, this is my direct link to all that I have created.
and started making lap quilts:

I loved this for the soft colors

don't you just love this..you want to just eat it

Plus more, but then, mainly ones I designed myself:

this one I loved as it was simple and yet bold

my funky quilt, choices of color surprised me

And my crowing glory...........

my all time fav, worth the work.

That one consisted of 285 3 1/2 inch blocks which started with 1 1/4 inch strips.....needless to say, it took me awhile, but I love the result! I have another crazy idea in my head for something just as time consuming for 2011 and I'm all set with this:

That will be a change, because for a long time, my love of drawing and color has changed my course, and for 2010 I mainly concentrated on smaller wall hangings:

But then I added whimsy to the mix:

Do you recognize this crazy lady?
This was once on this blog, sew I took the photo
that I knew Samm had created into a cartoon..
went from this to this...

I made that for Samm since she was kind enough to fancy up my blog......(looks just like her don't you think???)

People think I must have some kind of fantastic sewing space, and tons of stash, but it's not true. I sew here:

And I store most of my sewing stuff on my dining room table.....which mainly looks like a disaster, so I won't show you that......(actually, I cleaned up the kitchen for that last picture too, so don't think for a minute that I'm such a clean and organized sewer). LOL I'm as messy as the rest of you!! I buy in limited lots of 1/8 and 1/4 yards of fabric so that I have tons of different prints and colors to go to...but I buy Kona white in 6 to 10 yard lots since I use so very much of it. I even surprised myself this year and designed and published two tree skirt patterns:

 ONE WINNER WILL
Win this one and....

That one is called, "Oh Joyful" and the next is called, "Julie's Funky" and it'll be very apparent in a minute when you see it:

and this one too!

This is the GIVEAWAY, for these PATTERNs, would you like to WIN.

Leave a Comment Here, , Be a follower, come
and visit me, and WIN!

In fact, I'd like to give both patterns away to one lucky winner. Madame Samm will pick the lucky recipient as she normally does and will let me know so I can send it out post haste. I hope you enjoyed my little show and tell today. I'd love to come back and show you more.......
my mind is filled with lots more goodies believe me!!

Merry Christmas to all,
and to all a good morning.
Carol aka mamacjt

WINNER #15 Guilty Conscience.
and if you are TONI
please connect with me with your address
sew I can pass it onto CAROL,
you are indeed OUR winner..
YOU will love her patterns..
To everyone else...be assured
the winnings will continue...
thank you for making Carol feel sew at home!

Have no fear...your stash is near!

If last minute gifts have you in a tizzy, have no fear...your stash is near! 

In just one afternoon of sewing, I marked a few gifts off my list: a scrappy table topper, a mug rug (thanks to Madame Samm’s expressed interest), ornaments, an apron and then even managed to finish a block that has plagued my to-do list for far too long.

The table topper was first on the list. 

 

Cut 3” strips WOF {not to worry if you don’t have yardage…this is perfect for longer scraps---my width was about 17”}. If you have full width, go ahead and use it if you’d like 2 runners when complete or pieced strips for another project.

Piece each of your strips, using a 1/4” seam allowance to the desired length. I used 17 pieces, with just a few repeats. Square up your top and press.

Create your quilt sandwich, making sure to cut your backing an inch and a half larger than your top. Quick pin baste in each row of the pieced top and mark for quilting. 

Trim your excess batting to about ½” larger than the top.  Assuming the runner will not be washed that often, I chose not to quilt this closely to save time. A quick grid of masking tape and this part takes just a few minutes.

Pull excess backing over batting, folding the raw edge under in the process. 

Press and pin in place.

Use a top stitch about a scant quarter from the edge from the fold. Repeat on each of the 4 sides.

VIOLA! Project complete.

Next,  a quick mug rug using two excess 3” strips and a 1 ½ inch strip from the scrap bin.

Sew your 3” strips together, cut two 3 x 5 ½"pieces, flipping one to reverse colors & connect to make a 4 patch. Join the 1 1/2” strip to the perimeter of the completed 4 patch.

Sew the remaining strip set to one of the long sides of the 4 patch unit and quilt using the same backing/binding method as the project above.

Ornaments were made from orphan mini-blocks & will be added to presents as gift tags. I also whipped up an apron using a remnant of the cutest cupcake fabric and loved it so much-----decided to keep it!

Merry Christmas to me!

WHAT? I've been good this year.

 

Happy Stash Shopping!  Heather of the RETRO-Fabulous Blog

Editors note: from Madame Samm

And how could we not have another GIVEAWAY..

Yes Carrie * visit her here on her blog too! has offered us  yet another NEW PATTERN...

To remind us to have HEART this season....

You know what to do...

Leave a COMMENT for Heather.

Be a follower..

Have a Chance to Win!

And the winnner is...

congrats goes out to 

#18 REENIE

A Quilt Complex..

extras will be coming too.

sew send along your address

sew I can mail this on Monday...

to all who commented...

there will be more chances to win..

stay tuned...

If I don't quilt it, nobody will want it...

Hi I'm Wanda from Exuberant Color blog.  This is the first time I have done a guest blog so I'll introduce myself.  I have been quilting for 52 years and have made hundreds of quilts.  People tell me that they can tell which ones are mine at a quilt show but I don't think I have an identifiable style, other than I LOVE COLOR!

I have a large stash.......this is the Christmas bin.  I have to laugh when the bin label says 58 qts.  Why don't they say 58 yards!!  Does anyone store quarts of anything in them?

About 12 years ago I cut lots and lots of Christmas fabric into 2" squares for my daughter and me.  You can see I still have a few left.........for someday. ( No giggling here, I know we all have these somewhere)

I did make a couple table mats a few years ago.  I kept one for myself.  I like to do crazy piecing too and sometimes use the fancy stitches on my sewing machine.  Check it out on my blog, on the 'Pages' and on the label list, both on my right sidebar.  Also under Tutorials on the Labels list there is one for assembling Christmas stockings.

For years I wanted to make a Christmas quilt and last year I finally made one. 

It used up a lot of 1.5" strips that I had cut at the same time that I cut the 2" squares.

This year I am making another one.  I am at the 'choosing border' stage on this one.  You can see I have an embroidery machine too.



While contemplating border choices I start another project (doesn't everyone?).  I had a couple orders to fill for my patchwork journal covers so I made a bunch to choose from.

I choose pieces from my 'parts bin' and then add fabrics until they are large enough to go around the little notebooks that I insert in them.  I line them and then quilt them.  There is a tutorial for these here.

I have a few tops waiting to be quilted if I run out of other things to do, LOL!!

No counting, but  if you do, please let me know how many are there?

When I am trimming my fabrics for the first piece I need for my stash boxes or a project, I do what I call a clean up cut, and I make it generous, anywhere from 1"-2".  It is always crooked of course so it goes into my 'crooked strip' projects.......

like this one and.............

this one.  I just love these.  They aren't quilted yet.  You know what happens after they are quilted don't you?  Someone wants them!  When they are just tops, they are MINE!

I'll leave you now with a photo of 2 of my bins of light fabric.  I've heard it said that no one has enough light fabrics.  Maybe they haven't visited my house yet.

Thanks Madame Samm for the invitation!

Merry Christmas!!


HO HO  HO
Editors note: from Madame Samm
Oh no REALLY, another GIVEAWAY,
no YOU shouldn't have?

 YES, and yes and yes, and here is this delightful festive book  review...

and yes from Martingale & Company

Home of That Patchwork Place.....

Jeanne Large and Shelley Wicks, know how to hang their stockings in this delightful

seasonal pattern book. Filled with a mixture of pillows and quilts, it is no coincidence that your feet will be itching to begin one of their projects. Check your stash for bright reds and greens and then choose “Joy to the world pillow” or “To all a good night”  Christmas quilt and “The Stockings were Hung” wall hanging. Be prepared to dance and quilt through your holiday season! 

Leave a COMMENT,

Be a FOLLOWER

Chance to WIN...


And the winner is #73 Cheryl
from myneedlecrafts..
congrats my dear and to all those who also
entered..there will be many more chances wink...

No name calling at Christmas, but K.I.S.S. works for me!

Hi everyone! My name is Rachel and I blog over at Scrapendipity Designs. have you ever heard of the 'KISS' method? This method is my ultimate favorite for all things quilty. If you haven't heard of it before, 'KISS' stands for 'Keep It Simple Stupid (or Silly if you don't want to call yourself names)'. It basically means don't make things more complicated than they need to be. I am all for this train of thinking.

Lately I have noticed that my scrap bins have become a little overstuffed. This is just some of my red and green.

Now I know this may be small potatoes compared to some of you, but my sewing corner is small and so I just don't have room to store tons and tons of fabric, so my stash needs constant grooming. Today I decided to follow my own 'KISS' method and use up some of my red and greens.

First I pulled out this pretty fabric from my stash.

I thought those little penguins would look great fussy cut. And guess what? I was right!

To cut these, I literally just cut on the lines of each square, no measuring, no thought behind this.

Next up I grabbed a bunch of red and green scraps.

And cut them into 2 inch strips. This was all the measuring that I did for this block. To attach the strips, I did not measure, I simply laid my center piece on a strip and trimmed it to size with my rotary cutter, then I sewed it down, ironed it open and did the same for the remaining sides. It was very easy, and kept this block super simple to make.

Here is a fun animation of how my strips went on.

And here is the final block.

Now in the end my blocks will not be exactly all the same size since my center block was not cut to any certain size. I am sure they will be close, but if they are way off, I will just trim all my blocks to the same size as the smallest block. In the end I will have a pretty Christmas quilt and hopefully plenty of room left in my green and red bins, ready for refilling.

Thanks for letting me share my quick and simple idea here, please be sure to check me out at Scrapendipity Designs for more fun ideas!

Happy Quilting!

Rachel

Editors note...from Madame Samm

Another GIVEAWAY!

And here is a Pattern  

from Carrie Nelson... here is an in depth interview about her..

 with another NEW one...called

 Isn't this one unique...?

if you think sew...leave a comment for 

Rachel of course...

 be a follower...and you can win too...

OHHH And the Winner is
#78 what are the chances that YOU
would win Rachel..pretty good odds.. since
the software has no idea who the numbers are...
SEW send me your addy...
Everyone else...thanks for commenting
stay tuned there will be more...wink...