Holding On......

Holding On ......
theme "Opposites Attract"
round 3 of McCall's QDS 2012

Well the time has come for the Voting to start on the final round of the Quilt Design Star 2012
Our theme was "Opposites Attract", I chose young and old, I found a wonderful photo on line of a great grandmother with her great granddaughters hands. It was a challenge working on the hands but I learned along the way and I am very happy with my end results. I have also used the Log Cabin block in both a traditional setting with the red centers for the hearth ( heart) of our home in darker colors and then off centered and uneven in brights to have yet another set of opposites.
Welcome to my blog to the readers of the Watrous Manitou ( our local paper)
I have the voting link on the side bar to make it easy to find the page. Once there you could bookmark it if you like to have a shorter way to get to the page, or you could cut and copy the voting widget that they have on the bottom of the page.
Thank you all for your support in my quilt designing in this challenge. I have had a great year of learning as well as designing. It has been a wonderful journey that I will continue to take and share along the way. I would also like to say Thank you to McCall's Quilting for the opportunity and let you know that they will be hosting this challenge again next year....... sew if you quilt and love to design this could be for you too!   You'll never know until you try.
in stitches
Annette

New Blog Hop

Is about to begin
Leafs Me Happy
here is the line up of the hop
follow along to see what everyone has created and there might be a few give aways as well.

Leafs Me Happy Schedule

Master Schedule

October 1-10, 2012

Monday 1

Fuzzy Hat Quiter

The Cuddle Quilter

Quilts My Way

Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts

Dream quilt create

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Needled Mom
Quilter in Motion

Sunshine Girl

Pam

Meadowbrook

Tuesday 2

Mrs.Pickles Garden

Gingersnaps Quilts

Petit Design Co

Jessisca

A Passion For Applique

Annie Oak Designs

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Krislovesfabric

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Wednesday 3

Plum and June

The Recipe Bunny

VroomansQuilts

It's Sew Kiki

PigTales and Quilts

Quilting fiesta

GrammieQ's

Nancy

Just Let Me Quilt

Selina Quilts
The Learning Curve~Quilts and Such

Thursday 4

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Patchouli Moon Studio

Freemotion by the River

Quilt Doodle Designs

Apple Avenue Quilts

Jane’s Quilting

Spoilt Dog Quilts

Ramblings of a Quilter

Deborah

A Passion For Appliqué

Gracie Oliver Arts

Friday 5

Insanity Defense

Michelle May and the Bunnies

Sparrow In Flight

Quilted Delights

Quilting With a Marmalade Cat

Traveling Quilter

A Stitch in Time

Cherry Blossoms
Tea Time Creations

Moose Stash Quilting

Stitchin By The Lake

Monday 8

Feathered Nest Studio

Grandmama's Stories

From This to That

Little Mama Hen

Quilt Monster in my Closet

Kathy

in stitches & seams

Buzzing and Bumbling

Nunu's Quilt World

Quilts And Dogs

Briarside Lane

Tuesday 9

Till We Quilt Again

Sheilas quilt world

ferristhoughts

Home Designs by Amanda

Quilt n Queen

Polka dot classic

Moonbeams in a Jar

Stitch, stitch, stitch

Sew Me Something Good

quiltingbydawn

My collection of Things

Wednesday 10

Quilter in the Closet

SewMuch2Luv

Peanut's Patchwork

Quilting Lines

Mochawildchild

Ariane Quilts

Lily Patch Quilts

Cindy's Crafty Creations

Hill Valley Quilter

Count it *all* JOY!!!

Sew We Quilt

Sew there you have it stop on by to see what I have created as well on October 8
see you then
in stitches
Annette

W.I.P. Wednesday

Even though it is early Thursday this is what I was up to yesterday.
I am working on my Leafs me Happy blocks

just a couple of sneak peaks

My FMQ for the challenge on SewCalGal   I would like to say thank you to both ladies, the book I won last month arrived and I am sew looking forward to some play time with it :)   I have linked up with the site to show what I have done , be sure to check how the others have made out with their FMQ.

September FMQ Samples

thanks Angela and SewCalGal
looks like a great resource book

I did up a couple more batches of jam and jelly .... might have to recook it as it has not set yet. Maybe the pectin  is getting weak or old not sure?? Maybe I should just leave the jelly/syrup as a syrup for pancakes and waffles.

And most important I put my quilt ,"Holding On .." ,in the mail to McCall's Quilting, sew they can have professional photos done as well as any judging of the design.
 I will have to ask to see when it comes home again.

 ...... and speaking of that I can go and get my Jewels of the Night , it was hanging in a museum for the summer.
It will seam strange not working on a challenge piece for McCall's anymore. If you count the Jewels of the night I have been working on challenges pieces since last December.
Oh don't worry I know that I will be busy.....
Finding the time to catch up with other projects and work  on a couple of blog hops that I have singed up for. One project will be the quilt for our son, it was to be for his 30th birthday. But when I entered the challenge and was selected to go on he told me not to worry about it and see how far I could go with the challenge with McCall's ..... thanks "Bud"
I will be linking in with The Needle and Thread Network  stop by here as well to see a lot of great works in progress....
until next time
stay
in stitches
Annette

Submitted

Well I have my finial quilt design done and submitted to McCall's Quilting. Come Tuesday October 2 the voting will begin.

Holding On......
one last peak before the voting starts

 

I had a busy week last week trying to get it finished. When things go to smoothly something is bound to happen ... well sometimes. And for me my Machine broke down just as I was getting a good start on my free motion quilting.  I do have another machine and it is a nice new machine but I have never tried to quilt with it and I knew this was not the time for that ....sew.... a good friend on mine loaned me her machine ( which is the same) to do my quilting. It worked sew nice, I had the quilting finished Friday with only the binding and label to do.

Now I have to do some paper work and get the quilt off in the mail to McCall's Quilting and wait and see how everyone dose.
Only one week until they are on line. I can hardly wait to see what all the quilts look like. And how they all have used the theme.
 I know that there will be 18 great quilts made by some new quilt designers.

on another note ....
This past weekend we where at our daughter's doing a few things around her palce, including picking about 26 gallons of grapes. I have started to make jams and jelly and  a few jars of juice. Soon I think I will turn purple ... but they are sew good. I know we will have some to share with friends.

well I'm off to get my quilt packed
have a nice evening
in stitches
Annette

Ready to Quilt !!

Well I had a busy day yesterday and I have my  MQS Design Challenge 3  quilt ready to quilt. I had planned out what I wanted to quilt this past weekend. Sew now  I just have to set my machine up for free motion and away I go. If I keep up to speed I should have the quilt ready to mail next week. I want to allow a little extra time for it's travel. I also will have to take it to the paper sew that folks in town will know that the voting starts October 2, on the McCall's Quilting web site.

just a peak
pin basted and ready to quilt

It will seam strange not to be working on a challenge piece. It has been most of the year that I have been participating in one challenge or another.
 It has been a good year of designing and I know I have a few more to work out after I have this one on it's way. And to clean up my sewing / quilting area.
I also have a suitcase with a few tops just waiting to become quilts and a few UFOs to finish up as well. Sew no worries I will be busy trying to get it all done.
I will be linking up with The Needle and Thread Network , with Monika. Be sure to stop on by and see what the gals have been up to with thier works in progress.
Have a great day
           in stitches
                      Annette

Full steam ahead.

We are back from a weekend in Alberta. We had a nice visit with family and celebrated my sister in laws 50 birthday.It was great to share that time with her.
Sew now that I am back home it will be full steam ahead on my design. I have some applique to do and then some thread play/painting before it set it up to quilt.
Just as soon as I have my Design Challenge 3 done I will play with a few ideas for the Leafs me Happy blog hop happening in October.
Later I will have to clean off a little more of the garden as we had some frost while we were away.
I best get started lots of stitching to do. I am looking forward to seeing the finished design, I hope you are too.
Have a great day
in stitches
Annette

W.I.P. Wednesday

It seams like forever since I last posted on a Wednesday.
I do have one main project on the go, and if you have been following me you'll guess that it is my Challenge 3 design for the McCall's Quilting  Design challenge.
I have a good start on the design wall. I have built my background and I am getting my applique ready to attach and then I will figure out what I want for my borders.
I did try to shop for fabric before I had the background size drawn..... big mistake. It left me open to too many choices  for color and block designs. I had wonderful help at the Haus of Stitches on the weekend .... thanks ladies....   I have decided on size and shape and even the number of blocks needed. I did do a little shopping at a friends in her scrap stash for a couple colors to add to the mix. What would we do with out our quilting buddies ??
And now that I have been home for a couple days I have the blocks built and assembled into the background. I went with what had been my first choice .... Log Cabin though Grandmother's Flower Garden was a close second ( forgot to grab the pattern Marci Baker has to build them a little quicker , I 'll have to put one on hold )

both log cabins are the same size
one is in a traditional setting and the other bright and off centered
with all sides the same
stay tuned to see how they work together

I know I have a lot to do in a little time  my weekends have been booked for the next little while sew I will be sewing a lot during the week. At this point I feel that I am on track and hope to be rolling right along .
I am linking up with The Needle and Thread Network. Check in and see what the others have been up to across Canada.
Off to sew
In stitches
Annette