Sunday, October 7, 2012

Leafs Me Happy Hop October 8, 2012



Welcome Fall ........ and all the falling leaves
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian bloggers and followers
It is my turn to share with you on the Leafs Me Happy blog hop .
I would like to thank Madame Samm and Cherry Blossoms for organizing and hosting this blog hop. I know it takes a fare bit of time to get it all done ..... thank you .. thank you.....  thank you. We all appreciate it a lot.
First I would like to share the list of links for the blogers today .....
Monday 8







                              in stitches & seams  ( hi! You are here )




be sure to stop by and see what makes them all smile with their leaves.

Scattered Leaves

Well I decided to play with the leaf templates I have from one of my patterns for a fall banner/garden flag, called  Changing Seasons. As I played with my 12 1/2" block I thought it would be nice to have a pillow for the season too.

And to dress it up some I added a ruffle to the border .Finished size is 16" square. My first pillow in a long time. I just might have to make a few more now as it went together fairly quick, and was fun to make.

Changing Seasons Banner

I have also made up the banner and will have a copy of the pattern as my give away for this hop, I'll include a fat quarter or two as well. Just leave a comment, and follow if you like. You can enter until midnight on the 10 of October for the give away.

I have a pile of leavs in my living room!



My give away for the Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop


If you noticed the Voting link on my page it is for the McCall's Quilting  Quilt Design Star challenge that I have been participating in this year. I have had a lot of support from family and friends and have made it to the finals, sew if you are sew inclined stop on  by and cast a vote and also check out the other quilts that have been designed for this last round.

Sew that's all for now , thanks for stopping by
in stitches Annette

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

W.I.Ps Wednesday ...... & voting

I have been busy getting my block together for the Leafs Me Happy hop. My turn will be on Monday the 8th, Thanksgiving here in Canada.
I have a couple peaks here and next I will be working on the blocks for Wicked another hop,over at Sew We Quilt aka Stash Manicure.
It will seam strange not working on a challenge piece now. As the last round of quilting is done and the voting has started. There have been some great quilts designed once again. I have been sew blessed to be part of this group of quilters.Check out the quilts with my link on the side bar.
a few blocks for my son's quilt
I hope to see it growing soon
sew now it will be time to take out a bunch of my UFOs and work on them I have a quilt started for my son and that will be the first one I want to finish. He had told me to put it on hold while I was in the McCall's Quilt Design Star Challenge.
I received good news the other day .... my sewing machine is all better. It had broken while quilting Holding On... and I had to borrow a friends to finish. sad to say I have not had it 4 yrs yet. But it is fixed and I can play with it again. I had trouble with the take up lever ( thread tangling on it and breaking, this is what the trouble was caused from as it loosen the lever and it came off as well as the build up caused the needle to miss aline when sewing decorative stitches ) I will be taking it for a good test run when I get it home again.
The weather has turned a little cooler here and they have been using that 4 letter word  .... snow..... It's much too early for that, but if it comes it should not stick around just yet I hope.
Well that's all for now be sure to check in with The Needle and Thread Network to see what everyone else has been  up to, I'll be linking up with Monika there.
in stitches
Annette

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

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

Friday, September 28, 2012

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

Tuesday 2

Wednesday 3

Thursday 4

Friday 5

Monday 8
Tuesday 9

Wednesday 10

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

Thursday, September 27, 2012

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

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

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