Nantucket+ Midwinter Reds= One Finish

My very first two color quilt. I am so glad that someone came up with the idea of
those little stars... I would never have thought of that, but they add a little pizzazz to the
quilt. Not that it didn't stand alone well. I love seeing the other Nantucket's
popping up and with their own little flair.


I am still waiting to see Lisa aka Stashmaster's quilt. She is the one
who really encouraged this project and as an opportunity to sew along with her.
Then you know how it went from there! Next, was Thelma, then Nicole, and
then there was Jen at Seams Crazy, Cozy Little Quilts/Sue and LA Quilter too.



(Nantucket)



It's not too late. It's a fun pattern and a great fabric line, although, the blue version
is tempting me now!

Now, I am also caught up with Quilty Fun... 1, 2 & 3!

 

Did you get a chance to see part #4? Over at Frieda's Hive!

Tickled Pink

I have made some good progress on Nantucket this week. 

I made all of my 5 patch blocks up and inserted a scattering of stars too.

Now I just need to sew the blocks together... 

and that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish this weekend.

Although I have some carpets to clean and housework to tackle

before the holiday!

Thanksgiving will be at my house this year. It is the standard, but I give it 

up every now and then. 

I do like it when I have a house full though.

I had a couple of "old friends" return home this week...

My Fat Quarter Shop sample quilts.

Strawberry Social and Butter Mints.

Both are kits that are now available at FQS...

they are made with Pam Kitty Morning fabrics...

which I am in love with. 

I love it so much that I have a couple more projects using her fabrics in the 

queue. I am dying to make the lunchbox pattern and I am toying with the

idea of using PKM fabrics for another quilt that is popping up this week

in blogville. You can see what I am talking about here.

Evie is going to love her Strawberry Social quilt.

I am hanging on to Butter Mints though.

Here is another little something I got this week.

A friend of mine had this for her grand children... who have now 

outgrown it. I was able to pick it up from her for a sweet little price.

I am tickled pink about it too!!!

Can you just see Evie playing with these sweet things?

We just need some mini size laundry to go with it!

Midweek Mosaic: Are You In the Mood?

It's that time of year!

I am ready to start baking...

and my quest is to make French Macaron cookies.

I have been wanting to make them for a couple of years now...

and this year I am giving it a go!

I have pinned a slough of pictures on my Pinterest board of 

these lovely creations.

They are a little tricky to make but I am

ready for the challenge.

Here is my thought:

I would love to give these as small gifts for Christmas!

So, that is my incentive!

In preparation for the holiday's I also bought myself

a new cookbook:

 A delicious baking cookbook.

                                    

(the Model Bakery famous English muffins)

The book is recipes from the amazing Model Bakery that is in the Napa area

of California. St. Helena to be exact.

The weather is on my side... cold and rainy, so the perfect time to fire up the oven

and get busy in the kitchen!

Another wonderful place in Napa is the Jordan Vineyards and Winery!

In my opinion,

 Napa is probably one of the best parts of California... 

the food, the wine, and the countryside.

Here is a video from their chef on making French Macaron's!

How to Make French Macarons: demonstration video tutorial (not Macaroons)

The Jordan Vineyards has another You Tube video on making pie crust...

it's well worth watching!

Happy hump day!

Catch Up

I never had a chance to blog about my next row for the Quilty Fun along.
Here are my stars!
I am excited to be on track and ready for this weeks group of blocks, which happen
to be Courthouse Steps! Yeah!

You can see that I have been working on my other project...
Morning Jo.
However, I am calling it Plantation.
Coffee Plantation.

 

I got my large blocks done and I am ready to start on my
small blocks... I am doing version #2.

I had this background fabric sitting out on my cutting table for some reason...
so I thought I would look for something to go along with it.
Then I ran across my American Jane fabrics and some PKM fabric...
and then there was a couple of other considerations but the PKM and AJ
versions of Morning Jo obviously
 had already been made up
on the pattern.

So I ran across this fabric in my stash closet...
it was a group called Dominique. I had purchased a bundle but also
for some reason I had bought 2 yards of the print which was
5 1/2" squares of each of the fabrics in the group.
I crossed my fingers and cut it all into squares and hoped that
the quilt would come together nicely.
I have been working with a lot of light and bright fabrics lately, so
I thought I would take the opportunity to make something
with more of a traditional feel to it.
 My fingers are still crossed... what do you think?

I also have been working on my Nantucket blocks for the border.

I layed them all out together here for the photo. I only have a few more blocks to

go on the border! 

Are you making this one too? How is your Nantucket coming along?

Midweek Mosiac

I love seeing all the gorgeous quilts made with Midwinter Reds.
This is such a great line of fabric. It could be my favorite
from M&S to date. And I do believe I have had almost all of them!

I have only done a little bit of work on my Nantucket quilt

but I really like the way it is coming along.

I love this fabric.

I have never made a red and white quilt before...

and this group is perfect for my first crack at it!

I did make some good progress...

Here is my center stars!

But then I got a little bit diverted by this little project:

Isn't this a cute pattern...

it's a freebie from Camille at Thimble Blossoms!

Just print it out and grab some treasured scraps and

play!

It was so fun... I want to do it again!

It's a Pam Kitty Morning Kind of Day

Here are a couple of my secret assignments that I have been busy with.

I have been quietly playing with the wonderful new Pam Kitty Morning

 and Lakehouse Dry Goods fabrics!

I am happy to share them with you today!

I loved making them for two reasons...

#1, I got to play with some fabulous new sweet-as-can-be fabric

from PKM and Lakehouse and #2, was 2 super fun patterns to play with.

I have to admit that those strawberry stems were tricky business...

not hard to do but I would have never in a million years been able to

think of the process myself.

Oh, and #3 is a repeat of #1!

I love this fabric and am savoring the leftovers from these kits.

Both of these kits are soon to be available at Fat Quarter Shop.

Strawberry Social will soon be a gift for little Evie!

And one for grammy's house too!

I was anxious to start my Bee in My Bonnet sew along this week.

I missed out of the sewing along part of the sew along. Meaning I 

didn't make any rows but I was so excited to see everyone else's rows

as they made them each week! Have you seen Carol's at Carol's Crafty Creations?

I love hers and many others!

I had printed out the row along as it progressed.. and to my surprise it

filled up a 3 ring binder! Never-the-less, when the book was going to be published

I knew I had to have it... mostly because it also included fun photos of the photo shoot and

not to mention the many other projects that are in Lori's book. 

And now to know that there is a sew along with a bonus project....

you don't think I am going to pass that up do you?

Now if I can only remember how to add this to the Flikr Group.

The Start of Nanticket

I was able to start sewing on the project so I thought I would show

you my progress for this week so far.

The beginning of Nantucket!

From this...

 to this.

And then to this... deciding what block combinations will go where.

And even a little bit of this!

Fabric Du Jour & Prizes Too

 

Midwinter Red is finding lots of projects to be a part of!

(Temecula Quilt Company)

Have you seen their sew along???

It's called Countdown to Christmas.

I had to start this one for sure!

I decided to use a little different color choice.

I went to my LQS and looked at my options...

and then decided on the taupe from Fig Tree's Avalon 

collection. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

This one, Debonaire, seems to be screaming out Midwinter Reds!

(photo from FQS)

Of course this one stole my heart.

It's Nantucket, and apparently I am not alone!
Lisa suggested that I make it when I was trying to
decide between the two projects above.

Lisa, aka Stashmaster, wanted to make it too...

so we planned a sew along together.
Then Thelma aka Cupcake n Daisies,

jumped on the band wagon with us after a little convincing... only to be followed up

by Nicole, Ms. Sisters Choice! 

There is still room on the bandwagon for more!

I have mine cut out... and soon I will be able to begin sewing!

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to post the winners for the Clover parade over the weekend like I thought I would do.

Here are the winners:

From the wonderful and talented Carrie Nelson,

she will be giving a "surprise package"

of something special... much like grandma going to the cupboard

and always pulling a great treat out of the cookie jar...

I imagine that she has the best stash ever!
However, I don't imagine that she is anywhere near
my age! 

The prize winners are:

From Sherri's parade:

Helen

From my parade:

Susan

Also, I randomly picked a winner:

I will be sending 2 charm packs of Scrumptious to...

Wendy at It Is What It Is blog!

Sherri picked a winner from her blog...
it will be a surprise something from her trip to Market...
and the winner is:
Debbie!

Congratulations to all of you who won

and to all of you who made Clover...

they were all beautiful!!!

The Post Halloween Parade!

I hope you had a great Halloween!

We don't get trick or treat-ers where I live

but we went over to our son's in-laws to enjoy the festivities! 

Here is the little Evie bunny.

She even hopped!

I just had to get a shot of the "tail end"!

And here is the next AYOS!

This is Morning Jo...

however, this one has a slightly different name.

It's "I Take My Coffee Black" and it was made by

Ms. Cupcake, Thelma! Fortunately she had made 

the project and then was nice enough to offer the photo

of it for the parade today. It seems that I have been

consumed by a few things and I never got mine made.

She made hers with the alternate version of the pattern 

and then added the little twist of a black background fabric

to go with her American Jane fabrics! Cute eh?

Here is the pattern:

Option 1

and 

Option 2.

I love all of the above!

You can order it here.

Now, grab your left over candy and some "Jo" and get ready 

for the Clover parade!

First up is...

This one!

Here is a beautiful Clover hanging... with a sweet little pumpkin

next to it! This one was made by Michele at Island Life Quilts.

This one was made by Patty who went with only 4 blocks

and made it into a very nice Autumn quilt.

Here is a beautiful version of Clover made by Paulette!

I love her version and what she did with the 4 patch sashing pieces.

Polly from Aunt Polly's Porch

made her sweet version of Clover with only  a 

small setback or two! I enjoyed reading her post about it...

lots of fun photos too!

This gorgeous Clover was made by Sally!

 It is so beautiful... I love these fabrics!

Sandie at Crazy 'bout Quilts

made her festive version here... giving it a very fall look!

Sandy F used Sweetwater fabric "reunion" for her beautiful Schnibbles!

Sandy said she enjoyed the pattern very much... which wasn't  the 

most common comment! Although everyone did agree that they loved their

Schnibbles when it was all done!

Most everyone decided that Clover was the appropriate name!

This lovely version of Clover was made by Susan! She wasn't able to enter

into the last parade so she was determined to get this month's Schnibbles done!

I love the controlled border with the blue and red used in the sashing.

Tracey made a pretty version of her Clover and added a nice border.

Marti thought she wasn't going to get hers done in time...

so she hurried up and took her photo of Clover! I love the colors...

she made a very fun bright and happy quilt!

Nancy made another wonderful version of her Schnibbles project this month...

with the perfect centerpiece!

This is a pretty little one!was made by Sue. She used (believe it or not) 

her leftover civil war reproduction fabrics from her Dear Jane quilt.

Here is a gorgeous Clover made by Tilda!

She used Wintergreen by 3 Sisters. 

It does have a warm holiday feeling!

 Beautifully done!

Here is Wendy's sweet autumn Clover quilt. 

I love her choice of color combinations for each block.

You can read more about Wendy's adventure with her Clover

on her blog, It Is What It Is.

And to finish off the parade... our last Clover Schnibbles 

that was made by Mary C! A beautiful version in rich

fall tones! She actually counted over 700 pieces in this little quilt!

If you haven't been over to A Quilting Life yet...

you need to go see the other half of the parade! 

Please leave a comment to let everyone know 

what you thought of this months' Schnibble parade!

We will have parade prize winners tomorrow!