Sew its time for April to take its bow, sew May can enter ....Look new Banner Winners...

Yes April embraced us with a lot of  yellow, and yes we certainly 

had a lot of rain, and sadly we say goodbye 

to some very lovely ladies and their quilts......

Lee, Wendy, Jill and Liesbeth

Thank you for gracing us all with your talents...

We bid you farewell for now...hopefully our paths will cross again.

Keep stitching with your hearts!

You sew showered us with a burst of sunshine each and every day!

and now a speak peak for our 

MAY Banner Winners...

Congratulations to our May Winners...

I received over 402 coin quilts  thank you thank you...many were

seasonal, dark, ( great for future months) 

I think we all needed some bright colors...agree?

SEW these 4 were chosen as they blended

perfectly for this month...MONDAY you will

read BEHIND the SEAMS - their stories behind the quilts...
Sunday we rest...

For now- why  these were selected....?

This one ( top left) as it looked liked

the sun had kissed it. The colors just popped- like

when it rains in the morning and then the sun comes out...

FRESH! She proved that making COIN Quilts can 

say diff't things to diff't people. 

This one said to me...albeit it is my interpretation..

but it shouted..."Squeeze Me" ...lol...

The next one center left....

I smiled when I saw this one...

as I swear it said..."where is summer?"..

with the touches of green, soft pinks and reds...

well it looked like to me like a MAY garden...

(Ok, what I would like my MAY  garden too look like now)

light, airy, just sew pretty...

 Next this Center one....

NO pinks here...but to me it whispered sunshine...

as in a vital ingredient for our gardens...

There is sew much warmth omitted from this,

you can't help but think, there is a story here....

ohhhh and can you see the sun reflecting on it 

in the top left corner...see....warmth...

And our next one chosen...

well this one reminded me of strawberries and whip

cream. SWEET ....PICNIC, SUMMERTIME

give me a spoon....

I want to eat it....( but I won't )

Sew you see, no easy task, when all of the photos are in my file

I have no idea who they belong too...until I come up with a banner

and new logo design...it is then and only then do I go back and see

who they belong too.... It is always about blending...

this one being COIN quilts was a challenge.....

NEXT month will be Lilacs, Purples, Lavenders...

if you have quilts, runners, wall hangings...please

send to me...be sure the photos are taken outside, on a sunny day..

and send to me by the 3 rd week of the month...

I always have the banner done by the third week of the month

as I have to notify winners and get their stories...

OHHHH and our winner for 

this lovely giveaway 

is......#199
Soren2go
( OH YES YOU my dear...)
All others...well you know we will have sew
many more giveaways, as we have sew many
sponsors...)

Thanks for being part of all of this...

End of Month Giveaway...an An ALL STAR giveaway..

This is an ALL STAR giveaway..

to celebrate SPRING

1 winner gets all 3 prizes...

1st a copy from

That Patchwork Place -Martingale & Co

Sew Decorative.( read more here)

Runners, pillows....

bathroom caddy...

This would be sew easy and practical..

YES yes yes...Martingale...THANK YOU!

How about a cube pillow or something for boys..

always looking for project for boys..

I like this and with the fat quarters here for our giveaway

this would make a great boys pillow..

Don't you just love the simplicity of this chain stitch

on just a plain white fabric..I do..!

 Oh look an envelope pillow...

all these in this great book..

 2nd prize....A fat quarter bundle of ALL STAR 2

from Riley Blake...

There are 10 FAT quarters all in greens

and browns...again perfect for boys and SPRING.

Thanks to Riley Blake for some great collections for 

BOYS...

 3rd prize And Look 3 spools of  Presensia sewing threads and 

 2 spools of El Molino Rayon ( take a peak at bottom of page..

Bag Lady and Presensia same company)

for some accent work on your projects..

I really love this thread, no lint collected in your

machine, and my machine just purrs with this...

The rayon I have used for bottom stitching on 

my recent quilt...

Thanks to Presensia for their fine Egyptian threads...

Draw will be on the 30th of April.

that is tomorrow...YEP!

WANT TO WIN? Here is what you can do...

#1 Be a follower, how easy is that?

#2 What do you use for binding your quilts.?

( tell me what width, fabric choices, stripes,

dots, scrappy...yep I want to know )

Ü

(I know, that is it...no jumping here or there

and everywhere...)

Ohhh a  HUGE STAR  thank you to our sponsors would

be very appreciated!.

You can leave your comments in this one below for giveaway or above...all will be accounted for.! PROMISE !

Do you have a crummy background??

No, no, no - I don't mean did your uncle Roscoe keep a still by the creek, or did Gramma Norma take a pinch of snuff now and then... this is all quilt related!

Hi, this is Linda from Eat, Sleep, Quilt, and I want to thank Madame Samm for inviting me to share with you today!  If you stick around until the end, you can get in on a giveaway of today's project.  Now, about that crummy (or crumby!) background...

We're always looking for new ways to use up our scraps, including those tiny pieces that are too small to qualify as scraps - crumbs!  Here's how I used some of my crumbs as a background for a small quilt, inspired by this picture. 

First I grabbed some crumbs and scraps in the same color family for the background, blue in this case. 

Depending on the look you're going for, you might want to stick within the same color range - light or medium or dark. For this little project, it didn't really matter though - I wanted the impression of a sky with "something" going on in the background. I found a couple longish strips and started sewing on the crumbs at random until the strips were filled, then I pressed towards the small pieces. Note: When I sewed these, I wasn't overly concerned about the few bias edges, they got caught up, or stabilized, in the next round! 



small pieces on a strip

The strips were cut apart into pairs  

pairs

and the pairs were combined into larger groups until I had decent sized pieces...

At this point there's no hard and fast rule about the size, or how many pieces you combine; you're just looking to make pieces (or blocks) that you can attach to other pieces.  It helps. though, if you keep aiming for a square or horizontal shape.

Can you see my pins?  I placed them horizontally along the seam line rather than perpendicular - for me this makes the edges more stable while I'm sewing.  Of course, they're removed before the needle gets to that point!  I continued joining in this way until I had a background the approximate size I wanted,

then I trimmed it down to the final size and my background was pieced!   

And now for the foreground.  I made a pattern of the pig's face and cut a quarter circle for the sun.  Hmmm... leaves or not? Yes, definitely leaves to balance out the sun on the other side! 

I did raw edge applique on the entire piece, including the small areas of the leaves. To make the pebbled wall, I layered the fabric onto a piece of batting and filled the area with continous different-sized loops. I cut the wall along some of the larger circles to give it a ragged appearance, then I applique'd it down along the top edge.

So here's Petunia, peeking over a stone wall, with her curly pink tail in the air! 

I used buttons for her tail; I could also have embellished with bugs, butterflies, wiggly worms, whatever... or I could have extended the leaves down the wall... but I wanted to keep this one simple.

Here's another one I did, using yellow crumbs to make the background for a larger quilt;

you can see the finished piece here.  One note though ... if you're making a large quilt, I'd try to use larger pieces for the background, else all those seams might create a challenge when you go to quilt it.  Just saying.

Here's another small one I made of a water bearer, using leftover yellow pieces from the quilt mentioned above. 

In my opinion, she doesn't need anything else except binding; the many shades in the yellow background have enough movement and texture! 

And now, the giveaway (ends on Sunday) 

I won't bore you with the details here; if you'd like a chance to win, visit my blog and I'll bore you over there!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!

Sew forth and sew on til later

Lyn is here...had a bit of a hiccup this morning....

Good Morning, A very Warm thank you, to Madame Samm for the invitation to be Guest blogger today.

My name is Lyn, from Bluebird Quilts.

How you may ask, to manicure 12-16 stashes? Simply, by organising a Mystery Quilt Project through your Friendship or Quilting Group.

Requirements:12-16 willing quilters to participate, through to the very end of the project. (to avoid disappointment to fellow quilters, need to be committed)

Start at the beginning of the year, for completion in time for the Christmas Festivities.

Quilting Mama to oversee the smooth running of the Mystery Quilt Project.

Quilting Mama to choose a suitable pattern design. ( that will include 12-16 different blocks, many free designs to choose from the net.)

Make participants aware, the finished size of the block. ie 12 1/2 inch block. Also, for each participant of her obligation to fellow participants.

Each person is given their pattern. Then they make one block, in their desired colourway.

Next step, place the finished block into a container. Add approx. 1 1/2 metres of your chosen background fabric. Place your name/details on the container, with your likes and dislikes of colours.Each month/fortnight/week when you meet, each person takes a different container and makes the same block from the pattern sheet they were given, in the chosen colour of the other participants. (12-16 times, depending on the number of participants)

The best part, to me, was choosing from my stash, the different colour combinations, for each participants blocks.

When all the blocks are completed, Quilting Mama returns the containers, back to their owners, with 12-16 completed blocks, in readiness for the final step.

Each Quilter, then completes her Mystery Quilt, in readiness for Show and Tell at their last meeting for the year.

I hoped you enjoyed the idea, of manicuring your stash. The end result 12-16 completed quilts.

Warm Regards, Lyn

Lyn's comments are here and above

Tea Cozy For A Proper English Tea!

Tally-ho!  It's Nan from Pots and Pins, back for another round of codswallop, er, fun!  Surely you all know about the seismic event that's coming up??  No, not another earthquake, but The Royal Wedding!!  I hear it could be the most watched TV show in history with over two BILLION viewers!  Crikey!  Of course, I'll be setting my alarm and waking up in the middle of the night to watch...(1:00 am here in the Northwest!) and the mister will be sleeping down the hall because I wouldn't want to poke the bear wake him and  put up with any of his cheekiness about watching what could arguably be called the greatest spectacle EVER!

Tea and Scones will be necessary, for my viewing pleasure, and no proper English tea would be complete without a Tea Cozy!  Today I'm going to show you how to make a Tea Cozy in less than ONE hour!  No, I'm not joshin', it is possible and you will be totally gobsmacked when it's done!  So let's get started!

Make a pattern out of paper by taping two sheets together, end to end.  Cut the pattern 14-inches wide at the base by 9-inches high at the top, then gently round/arch the sides, keeping the width till about half way up...does that make sense?  Hope so!

You will need two different fabrics (fat quarters work great), plus fabric for binding and batting.  Or you can use scraps from your stash - there's a novel idea!
2 pieces of fabric:  9" x14" for the front and back.
2 pieces of fabric:  9" x 14" for the insides.
2 pieces of batting, 9" x14" for each side of the cozy.
1 piece of fabric:  2" x 5" for the pull.
1 piece of fabric:  2 1/2" x 28" for binding.
Optional:  rick-rack, yo-yo's, buttons or any other embellishments you might want to add.

Lay the pattern on top of both fabrics and batting, stack it all up together and cut it out!

 Layer the fabrics, with the batting inside, to make the two sides of the cozy.

 Machine quilt the two sides of the cozy, use a few pins to hold together but no need to go overboard!

 When quilted, trim up so everything is even.

 Make the pull for the top of the cozy by cutting a piece of scrap 5-inches x 2-inches.

Fold both sides to the middle.

 Ignore the gnarly fingers...I never could have been a hand model...or ANY model for that matter!

Once both sides are folded to the middle, fold one side over the other.  Finger press, no need to break out the iron for this!

 Stitch down both sides, close to the edge.  Godfrey!  Do I need a manicure or what?!?

This is purely optional, but if you would like to make your cozy a bit more cozy, add some jumbo rick-rack to the edge.

 Pin rick-rack to the right side of the cozy, and at the middle top, pin the pull.  Place the other side of the cozy on top, right sides together.  Pin in place.  Just look at the size of that vein!  Years ago I was sitting in church next to a little girl, about 4 years old and I caught her staring at my hands...she looked up to me and whispered, "You've got a worm under your skin!"  My first thought was, children shouldn't be allowed in church, my second thought was, she was right! 

 Stitch around the cozy, turn right side out...almost done!

Cut a piece of fabric for the binding, 2 1/2-inches by 28-inches.  Fold binding in half, length-wise and sew binding onto bottom edge of cozy, just as you would sew the binding onto a quilt.  Either machine stitch or hand-stitch down. 

 Now, if you really want to posh things up a bit, add some yo-yo's...or buttons or both!  (My binding has not yet been sewn down.)

 And just like that, you've got yourself a bonafide English Tea Cozy and Bob's your uncle!

 Stinkin' cute, no?  Now you just need some tea and scones!

And Devonshire cream and jam and tarts and bangers and mash and Scotch eggs and fish and chips and Pepto-Bismol!!  Okay, maybe just tea and scones...I'll let you pick your own tea but for the Scones, you must try my recipe for  Butter-Cream Scones, it's spot-on!  While these scones have butter and cream in the recipe, you still need to butter them up...and then load on some Devonshire cream for the full English effect...blimey!  I'm drooling already!

I'm looking forward to watching the Royal Wedding...and I sincerely hope it lasts longer than the last televised Royal Wedding!  Can't wait to see what Camilla wears on her head...or the Queen!  The mister and I saw the Queen and the entire Royal Family, including Princess Di and Prince Charles, back in 1984 on our first trip to England.  We stumbled upon this huge crowd of people (we are the original Accidental tourists!) lining the streets in front of Hyde Park and had no idea what was happening...I asked a man what all the falderall was about and he said, "Are you daft?  The Queen is coming!"  And so she did...and she waved her Queenly wave and I waved my Queenly wave right back and dare I say?  We had a "moment"...she looked right at me and smiled, as if to say, "You and I are two of a kind!"   And in my dreams, we are!  Well, that's my take on it and I've been her biggest fan ever since!
Until next time, I remain your humble servant...come see me at Pots and Pins, I'll have tea and scones waiting for you!  Cheerio!  Pip! Pip!  xoxo, Nan