Fat Quarter Shop Giveaway

Sew Bitter Sweet is hosting a Giveaway at the Fat Quarter Shop.  You could win a fat quarter bundle of Welcome to Gotham by Camelot Cottons.  Go HERE to enter!

Sweet Roses Baby Quilt

"Sweet Roses" Baby Quilt

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  My own.
• Size:  35" x 38".
• Fabric:  Rhapsody in Bloom.
• Backing:  Kona Premium Muslin in white, super duper soft.
• Binding:  Rhapsody in Bloom stripe.  Double fold, attached completely by machine for durability with perfectly mitered 45-degree corners.
• Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly.
• Quilting:  Straight line on the diagonal in white polyester thread.
• Value:  Super Sweet!!

For sale at Busy Hands Quilts on Etsy!!

If you like this quilt but need a different size, I have more fabric and can do that for you!!

Linking to:

Happy Cows Baby Quilt

"Happy Cows" Baby Quilt  

I ♥ the cow fabric!

I couldn't resist it at a local quilt shop and bought the rest of the bolt!

I love how dots pair with anything!

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  My own.
• Size:  35" square.
• Fabric:  "in the moooo-d" by Alexander Henry, Moda Essential Dots, etc.
• Backing:  Kona Premium Muslin in white, super duper soft.
• Binding:  Moda Essential Dots in black and white.  Double fold, attached completely by machine for durability with perfectly mitered 45-degree corners.
• Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly.
• Quilting:  Straight line on the diagonal in black polyester thread.
• Value:  Moo!!

For sale at Busy Hands Quilts on Etsy!!

If you like this quilt but need a different size, I have more fabric and can do that for you!!

Linking to:

Mrs.Hexie ... Patchwork Prism Quilt Finished!

Mrs.Hexie ... my interpretation of the Patchwork Prisms Quilt pattern by Anna Marie Horner for Janome.  Made completely from my stash {yeah!} and almost entirely with my current ♥ Annie's Farm Stand by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Fabrics ... a few other fabrics were used to fill in here and there.  I ♥ the mix of florals, dots, stripes, plaids, and checks.  You'd think 40 AFS fabrics would have been enough, but they weren't!

This is the largest quilt in which I have used fusible batting, and it worked fabulously without shifting even with the extensive handling of the quilt as I quilted.  ♥ fusible batting!  I did straight-line quilting along the inner and outer edges of the triangles and some special quilting to highlight the small hexagons.  ♥ that walking foot on my old Bernina 830!  The fabrics were not prewashed, and I ♥ the way the quilt crinkled up when it was washed!

The all-time bestest use of a clothesline is to photograph quilts!

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Patchwork Prisms by Anna Marie Horner for Janome.
• Size:  68" x 71", full pattern size.
• Fabric:  Mostly Annie's Farm Stand by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Fabrics with a few other treasures to fill in.
• Batting:  Hobbs Fusible batting 80/20.
• Backing:  Black with tiny white dots.
• Binding:  Black with tiny white dots, double fold, attached completely by machine for durability with perfectly mitered 45-degree corners.
• Value:  Wrap-me-up cozy!

This quilt has been entered in the Patchwork Prisms Quilt Contest hosted by Sweet Diesel Designs.  Thank you Kati from The Blue Chair, Angela from Cut to Pieces, and Bianca from Sweet Diesel Designs, and to the Fat Quarter Shop and Janome for the terrific prizes.

Linking to:

The Biggest Birthday Surprise EVER!!!

Shhh!!  Someone had a surprise 40th birthday party and invited me as the guest of honor!  They tricked me, plain and simple, and I fell for it!  Mr.Hearts came home from work and told me his boss had given him a gift certificate that expired very soon, so we were going to go out to dinner the next evening.   It just happened to be a gift certificate for my favorite restaurant!  I immediately said, "Let's leave the kids home and go on a date!"  Mr.Hearts said the certificate was big enough to take the kids, so he thought we should take them.  Okay, if you insist.  :{

At the restaurant, I still had NO idea anything was up but thought it strange when Mr.Hearts said something quietly to the hostess, but I didn't really give it much thought.  I was SO shocked to see my parents and all of my three siblings and some of my nieces and nephews standing there.  When I came to my senses, I said, "I am really loved!"  You see, they had all traveled MILES to come ... the closest ones had driven 230 miles, and my sister had flown from Arizona to Washington State!!

They told me, "Welcome to the 40s club, sister!"  I am the youngest in my family and the last one to join this club.

They came over to our house for dessert later, which they brought, of course!  Here we all are.

And here are the kids acting goofy.  

Some of them ended up staying overnight with us, and I was sure glad I had had the kids clean and vacuum their rooms that week ... an infrequent event, shall we say.  My sis from AZ stayed four more days, and we had a great visit.  We took her to the beach, as we always do when she visits because there are no beaches in Arizona ...

♥♥♥  Thanks family!  I love you, too!!  ♥♥♥

Mrs.Hexie - My Patchwork Prism QAL Progress

Phew!  I just finished piecing my Patchwork Prism quilt, named Mrs.Hexie.  For some reason, I am into naming things "Mrs."  First myself, Mrs.Hearts, then Mrs.Singer, Mrs.Bernina, Mrs.Star, and now, Mrs.Hexie!

I have learned that template quilting is not for me; I am a strip quilter at ♥!!  I did get a little very weary of the bias edges and look forward to my next project working on the straight grain again.  

A quilting skill I learned from a fellow blogger is how to prevent puckers when one layer of fabric is slightly longer than the other, a more common phenomenon when working with bias edges.  While gently stretching the fabrics until they lay flat together, place a pin parallel to the edge of the fabric, about 1/2" away from the edge so the presser foot doesn't run it over.  This results in gentle easing in of the longer edge and no puckers {unless, of course, one edge is significantly longer than the other and it simply is too much to ease in}.

Mrs.Hexie is made almost completely from Annie's Farm Stand fabrics by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse with a handful of other fabrics tossed in where I didn't have enough in a colorway, especially the yellows and greens.  You may remember I am redoing my living room in AFS fabrics.  This will make a nice addition to the room as a lap quilt.  The only wall big enough to display her on receives the afternoon sun, and I don't want her to fade over time.

I haven't completely decided if I'll quilt Mrs.Hexie using straight lines or if she will go on Mrs.Singer's long arm rails for an all-over meandering stitch.  She would look awesome with straight-line quilting, but Mrs.Singer could quilt her much faster than quiting straight lines on Mrs.Bernina and her walking foot.  Mrs.Singer cannot stitch in straight lines.  I'll show you a completed picture next week!

The Sunday Funnies

The cutest video - you don't know it's a commercial until the end! The baby in the middle at minute 1:40 looks like my nephew who shares my birthday, and the baby at minute 1:50 looks just like Eagle Eye did when he was little!

You can view this video at http://youtu.be/341rybZ42vA.