The Blog Hops Are Coming, The Blog Hops Are Coming...

 I feel like Paul Revere riding through the streets screaming at the top of my lungs!

HAHAHAHA

I am so excited that you were excited about hopping with us for Halloween and Christmas.

Carol and I got busy and made up some buttons you can post right away, just to keep you inspired.

I'm hosting the Halloween hop "Out of the Dark" from Oct 20-23. 

As always, anything "Halloween"" theme goes.

If you love creepy, you're one of us, but there is plenty of room for the sweeter side of things, as well.

My grandies definitely prefer the sweeter side.

Carol will be hosting her annual "Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange" hop 

December 1-4. That way you have plenty of time to "perfect" those delicious cookie recipes, that get shared on this hop.

So share your holiday favorite treat and/or project with us all. It really puts us in the spirit of the season.

If by chance you are new to hops, Carol wrote up a great explanation on her blog.

I can't even pretend to say it as well as she did, so HERE's the link to read it for yourself.

I am taking Halloween signups now. Just drop me an email with the following information. We do our best to accommodate any date preferences you may have.

If your interested in the Christmas hop send an email to Carol, she is ready to get the party started as well.

So on that note...off with you! You need to be planning your projects, because are we all are chomping at the bit to see them!

 

Hamilton Gardens

I have finished the quilt I was piecing on our road trip/retreat in May.

It has to be one of my favorite Bonnie Hunter Quilts

This is Hamilton Gardens.

It's the greatest scrap buster for those crazy people like me, who keep every little scrap. I blasted through lots of things that most people would throw away! 

LOL!!

I am so enthralled with it, that I am seeing it done using beautiful Christmas fabrics and even a Halloween quilt, maybe with a lime green background fabric.

Who knows what will pop up here some day.

You likely saw Carol and I are kicking around a couple of blog hops this fall.

Halloween and Christmas. Don't get your hopes up, this quilt won't be done in holiday colors, for either of them, but we are thrilled with the response we have gotten. 

The hops are a "GO" and we will be getting more information, the logos and the official sign up out, very soon.

A big thanks to all of you for the sweet emails you sent.

 

What are you doing for Halloween and Christmas?

 It's been some time, and Carol and I know you think we fell off the face of the earth, but we are still here and we are "Joansing" and "Caroling" for a couple of fall blog hops

Anyone interested in joining in on a Halloween and/or Christmas hop?

Drop us a line and let us know. 

We will get busy on dates and hop buttons soon!

Calicojoan@gmail.com

Sewswift6@gmail.com

 

Fibonacci's Fancy

I've been on a piecing frenzy lately. 

Break out your "shades" cause this is my super bright version of

 "Fibonacci's Fancy"

 designed by Material Girls. 

Show me an optical illusion quilt and I am hooked, but it seems like I'm not the only one...

It looks like intense piecing, I know...

...but honestly it wasn't all that bad. It's a lot of strip piecing and cutting those sets in pieces. I did use the walking foot on my machine to put it all together. That really was the way to go.

It took me awhile to get it quilted, but I am glad it's done and ready to enjoy.

If you are considering purchasing this pattern it's linked for you above, but you might check Etsy or Amazon, as well. 

Happy Summer to you!

 

I'm Back...

You haven't heard from me much lately, but I'm still here and I've been busy...

This is my latest finish.

Rockability Swing

 It's another Bonnie Hunter scrapbuster. 

This one is a biggie. It's 108" x 108" and all paper pieced.

I forgot just how much I love paper piecing until I started on this.

There are over 300 blocks in this one and it did make a dent in my scraps,

 but honestly not as much as I thought it would. 

Maybe that's just a sign of how big my scrap pile really is.

LOL!!

My longarm is only 10' wide, so I had to quilt it in 3 pieces. 

The center is one big piece. Then I quilted 2 rows separately and added one to each side, using the quilt as you go method. 

It's big and fits my king size bed perfectly!

It's fun to look at all the different fabrics in scrappy quilts. Hearing the grandies squeal, when they find something like spiders, Santa or princess fabrics makes me laugh. Yes, there is Christmas, Halloween, Princess and everything in between in this.

In May, a friend and I took a road trip...

It was a quilting week for both of us, that started at MSQC.

We rented a house, in front of their warehouse for a few days and enjoyed shopping and quilting.

The little house was "Pipers Place" that was recommended on the MSQC website and was a perfect place for our needs.

We headed south after that and spent the rest of our time at a wonderful AIRBNB in Branson Missouri.

From there we took a day trip down to one of my bucket list places.

I've never been to Arkansas and honestly, I didn't think we would ever find the place.

It was 3 1/2 hours of driving thru dense forests on curvy roads and having no idea where the heck we were. If the GPS had failed us, they would still be looking for us. LOL!!

But WOW...was it worth every minute of drive time.

Rows and rows of fabric...by the bolt, by the yard, by the bundle..

We didn't even see all the the warehouse in the time we were there, it was just soooooo big!

But my credit card said that I had done enough damage and it was time to leave.

HAHAHA

(but seriously, you can not beat their prices)

Lets just say, at least 180 yards of fabric and a roll of batting followed me home. 

My friend did just about as much damage as I did, as well. 

We had rented a full size car for the trip and when we picked it up, we were shocked at how small a full size car was, but we made it work. Who knew you could cram so much into a car that size.

If only I had taken photos of that!

LOL!!