Moms and Quilts

Hello there!  So glad you could stop by!

I have two projects that I want to share but I have to wait.  I hate waiting.   One will be revealed on Monday.  The Shadow Block Mini Reveal!

The second one is the Cloud9 Block Design project and there are a TON of ladies on this one.  We will each be designing one unique 12 inch block using this fabric.  Each quilter is going to post the block she designed along with a tutorial on how to make the block.  We will all be sending our blocks in to be sewed together into quilts for charity.   There are prizes to be had!  So be sure to visit this blog hop,  I'll be posting a list of all the participants on September 12.   Judging by the number of participants, I think we'll have enough to make several quilts! 

In the meantime, I have to come up with something else to blog about so I'm kind of all over the board from here on out.

My mom (who just turned 80) is the one who first taught me how to sew.  Hi mom!!

She never was a quilter but I remember all kinds of clothes and crafty things she made.  She hasn't sewed in years and had even sold her machine when she and dad moved into a retirement home but then someone gave her a sewing machine and then someone else gave her a bunch of scraps.  She started cutting squares and sewing them together to make a quilt to give to Love, Inc.  Love, Inc. is a non-denominational organization that has been successful in organizing churches of all different beliefs to help those in need.  Love them!!   Here is what she made!

So I took her shopping to buy some batting and help pick out the backing.  We found this yummy calico with yellow background and blue and pink flowers with green leaves.  All the colors in her quilt!  So now, I have a new project to practice my FMQ (free motion quilting)!

Remember this picture?

Now it looks like this!  It's kind of a barn woody looking engineered flooring.  Supposedly harder than wood.  We shall see!  This is the living room and kitchen.

While we're on the subject of moms, I am one, ya know.  And here is one of the humans who made me a mom.  Her name is Ashley.  Here we are trying to keep straight faces.

Mom, you're so weird!

Ah, but she loves me anyway.

Happy Quilting!

Sewing Space and House Update

Every once in a while, a quilt blogger will show us her sewing space.  Some of you ladies out there are born decorators!  I really enjoy those "insider" views.  My fellow quilt blogger Melva over at Melva Loves Scraps is hosting a linky party for anybody who would like to share their sewing space with us.

My space is VERY temporary!  I have kind of hijacked one of the offices in my mother-in-law's house with whom we are living with on a temporary basis.   Fortunately, she doesn't really use this one anymore, so I think she's ok with it.  We are living with them while our home is being remodeled so this is very make-do!

Here is the view when you walk into the office.  I didn't even straighten up to impress you.   :)

So now pretend that you sat down in that office chair and then swing around the opposite direction.  Here is what you would see:

All of my stash and sewing stuff is packed away.  I never dreamed we would be living here as long as we have (a year and a half!).  So the fabric you see piled on that book case is everything I've purchased in the last year.

On the bright side, my husband told me we are probably going to be moving into our house in about 2-3 weeks!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!

The window ledge is a convenient holder for a few house blocks and miscellaneous things that haven't been sewed into a quilt yet . . .

I tried to disguise this giant obsolete printer with some other miscellaneous blocks that I'm no longer interested in. . .

Here's a small collection of stitcheries that I may hang on the walls of my REAL sewing room later (except the wash day one) but for now they are just leaning against the wall.  Like several of you I love vintage things and I'm going to be on the lookout for things to decorate my new sewing room now that it seems it's actually going to happen!

Most of you saw my post about our house and how it has been transformed from a tiny little thing to a livable home.  Wanna peak at the inside?   This is what it looked like two days ago . . .

This is my daughter's window seat in her bedroom

And this is a view of one wall of my new sewing room!  Loving all that storage!  This is down in the basement under the house that once used to be a dirt cellar.  We finished it off and put in closets and electricity and heat and a really nice window that lets in lots of light.  I forgot to take a picture of that.  I'm going to go ahead and publish this post and I'll add that later.  So there's not a ton of natural light but enough to keep me happy and at least I have a designated room for sewing, right?

So that's my sewing space, present and future.  Join in the fun over at Melva Loves Scraps and let us see your sewing space!

Don't forget to check back on Monday to visit all the blogs in the Shadow Block Mini Quiltalong!

And in the meantime . . . Happy Quilting!

Linking to:

Melva Loves Scraps

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Shadow Block Mini Quiltalong Update

Quicky post to all those wanting to participate in the Mini Blog Hop we are doing!

So far we have fourteen ladies signed up to participate in the Shadow Block Mini Quiltalong and Blog Hop with several others still debating about whether to join.  I'm so excited to see what you're going to make!  I'm already working on my 2nd one.  These  mini quilts measure about 18" x 24" (rough guess) and can be made and quilted in an afternoon.  The part that takes the longest is choosing what to use.

COME ON!  Join the fun!  You can do this and we would love to have you!   As I've told several ladies, even if you can't make one by "Reveal Day" you can always make one later and share with us at #shadowblockmini on Instagram.

Participation information is here!

Look to the right on my blog.  There is now a Button you can grab along with appropriate HTML code to add to your sidebar if you wish.  I would have liked to make it a little bit more creative but this was a rush job.

My apologies to my family and friends who are non-quilters.  This post is probably all Greek to you!

Shadow Block Mini Quilt Along!

I have a quick story to tell you!    During this past few months, while participating in the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, I met some wonderful new friends!   Kate at Smiles from Kate was one of the first to welcome me to the blogging world and she's been a great encourager ever since!

Another fellow quilter I met was Jen Rosin of A Dream and a Stitch.  It seemed like almost every single time we talked with each other, we would find one more thing we had in common.  It was kind of spooky!  (in a good way)  This last time we had a conversation, we were both kind of in the same place, in that neither of us had ever made a mini quilt and we both wanted to do so.  As we were talking, we decided we should make one together and blog about it.   So Jen sent me a picture of one she had been thinking about doing and NO WAY!  It was the exact same one I had looked at just a few hours before.  How fun is that!  So it was settled.

We are going to make this mini quilt.

Update:  The Reveal Day for this Quiltalong is found here
And the gallery is found here

It is called Shadow Block Mini Quilt and was designed by Debora of StudioDragonfly.

Now here is the fun part.  We want to invite as many others as would like to participate to jump in and make your own version of this mini quilt.  We are going to turn this into a mini blog hop and have an official Reveal Day.   You can easily make one of these in an afternoon and even quilt it but we are going to give you two whole weeks to get this done.  If you want to participate, here's how!  

1.  Contact either me or Jen no later than August 31 and let us know you want to participate by leaving a comment on this blog or by e-mailing one of us:

Janice:  janice@passionforperfume.com  

Jen:  adreamandastitch@gmail.com

Include your name, blog, Instagram address, or wherever you would like to share your quilt.  If you want to share on instagram, use this hashtag:  #shadowminiquilt     Just be sure to wait until September 5th!  And really, you don't even HAVE to have a blog.  Just join us in the fun part.  The making!

2.  Go print out this tutorial and create the quilt.   

3.  Prepare a blog post about it to be revealed on September 5.    That gives you three whole weekends (and everything in between) to get this done.   Please make sure to include a reference to our blogs

Color Creating and Quilting (colorcreatingandquilting.blogspot.com)

A Dream and A Stitch (adreamandastitch.blogspot.com)

as the brains behind the idea!  We hope this idea will generate new traffic for us and for you!

4.  We will be sending a list of all participants to each one who will be making a quilt and blogging about it and would ask that you post this list with a link to each participant's blog just like a blog hop.   It will be so fun to see everybody's interpretation of this fun little quilt.  It is an easy project with some instant gratification. 

Debora Exum of StudioDragonFly, the designer, is also going to participate and announce this mini blog hop on her blog as well.  We are so excited to see everybody's interpretations of this mini quilt.  By the way, you don't have to limit yourself to just one.  Make as many as you like!  Maybe you can get some of your Christmas gifts out of the way?  

Jen and I thought this event up on the fly and really didn't think about any prizes but I'll bet we could come up with SOMETHING if enough of you want that to be part of this little event.  

I hope we get a lot of participation.  The more the merrier!!

So happy quilting my friends

Linking to:
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Finished or Not Friday

County Fair Quilts!

Happy Sunday Afternoon!

I just love small town living.  Yesterday was the last day of our County Fair and Rodeo.   I'm not as excited about the rodeo as I was when I was a girl, but I still love looking at the arts and crafts and photography.  Our fair is very, very small so it doesn't take long to look at everything but I was delighted to see in the quilt section a bunch of quilts that were labeled "Rescued Quilt".  Either the tops had never been finished (and now were), or they were just old quilts that had been repaired,  Here are my four favorites.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures, it was dark in that building and I only had my iPhone.

:

 And last but certainly, not least this gorgeous hexi quilt!

Here are a few of my favorites among the newly made quilts:

In keeping with the western theme, I pulled out one of my works in progress that was needing some attention.  I had finished enough blocks to make a baby quilt but it needed some sashing and I found some fabric that goes perfectly!  Isn't that chocolaty colored swirly just perfect??  I love it!

That's all for today!  I have a new project to share very soon!  It's my first mini quilt.  I didn't want to cut into of my yardage for the back so I used my scraps for the back.  Here's a bright scrappy back for you!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  What have you been working on?

Linking up with:

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Sharing Sunday's at The Creative Side

One Lovely Blog Award

I have fallen down on the job and neglected my blog!  In the meantime, one of my favorite quilt blogging buddies Kate @ Smiles From Kate has gone and nominated me for the "One Lovely Blog Award."   I am honored!  Thanks, Kate!   I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support and constant encouragement.  You're the best!

The Rules:

*Thank the person who nominated you, and give a link to his/her blog.
*List the rules.

*Display the image of the award on your post.

*List seven facts about yourself.

*Nominate (up to) 15 bloggers for this award, and notify them to let them know you have nominated them.

Seven facts about me:

1.  I am 5' 1 1/2" tall, gotta count that 1/2" inch, ya know!

2.  I play the flute and the piano and love to sing harmony whenever possible.

3.  I'm pretty good at ping pong!  

4.  I've got a little nerd in me.  I like Star Trek and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.

5.  I wanted to be an artist when I was little.

6.  American Pickers and Fixer Upper are two of my favorite shows.

7.  I want to meet more bloggers who are blogging for the fun of it!  

 I would like to nominate the following people for the One Lovely Blog Award:

1.  Jen Rosin at A Dream and a Stitch

2.  Rebecca at Cheeky Cognoscenti

3.  Louise at Quilt Odyssey

4.  Melva at Melva Loves Scraps

Another new adventure I'm going to be participating in is the 2016 Cloud9 New Block Blog Hop. 

 Each participant is sent  the same 5 fat quarters of fabric.  Aren't these pretty?

We are each to design a 12 inch block using at least three or more of these fabrics and no additional fabrics.  Then on September 12, 13, and 14 we are to publish our block design and a tutorial about how to make it along with the list of everybody else in the blog hop.  We'll all send our blocks to one person to be sewn into a quilt for charity.  I think they ought to auction or raffle the quilt off and give us all participants a chance to win it and then send the MONEY to charity!   There are over 60 of us participating so there should be enough blocks for several nice size quilts.

I can't wait to see what everybody comes up with!

I tell you what, I have a whole new respect for pattern writers.  I designed my block and sewed a practice block, but writing up the instructions took forever!  I'm excited to show you!  

I apologize for this pretty boring post.  I did sew this week, but it was on this block and I can't show you yet!  

Oh!   I almost forgot.  I'm also participating in a quilty read along kind of thingy.  There are six of us participating.  Bernie at Needle and Foot started us off with a book she had read called Vinegar Girl and sent it to the next person on the list with some fabric that reminded her of something in the book.  Tami was next and now she has sent it to me.  Tami sent me this!  A cute doodle she and her daughter drew and a lovely note explaining why she chose the fabrics she did.  I loved the note, Tami!

So I am in the middle of reading the book called Vinegar Girl.  If anybody is interested in participating in the next round of reading, you can learn about it here:

Summer Read

Again, sorry for the lack of color and creating of any kind.  I'll do better next time!!

I love when you stop by, so please come again!

Linking to Let's Bee Social

First Attempt at Quilting Feathers

I want to thank all of you who gave me advice about how to quilt my chevron quilt.  SO appreciated!  Rebecca Grace, I really liked your idea about how to stabilize with water soluble thread but I couldn't find any around here!  I needed to get going on this so had to just baste as well as I could with pins.

OK, now don't laugh too hard.  These are some pretty wonky feathers.  I am hoping that my husband's cousin is going to give me a little grace because I'm family! (Karen, are you reading this?)

In critiquing my own work, I can see some things that I need to work on but I am hoping the overall effect is pleasing in spite of the imperfections.  I have trouble going around the corners and keeping the feather sizes consistent and going all the way to the edge of the chevron.  I might need to put some echoing around the outside of those feathers to make it look more filled.    I got the three white rows feathered last night and hope to work on the purple and green chevrons today. Hearts will be last.  And then the weird shaped white rows.

The blog hop has been a lot of fun and tomorrow is the last day to sign up to win some great prizes! So don't forget to visit Meadowmist Designs, Quilting Jetgirl and Late Night Quilter for links to the bloggers who are participating in the final week of the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.

If I could do it over, I would ask a different question and that is 

"How do you start a quilt guild?"  

I live in a tiny little town of 1300 but amazingly, we DO have a quilt shop.  In spite of the fact that there are scads of quilters around here, the closest quilt guild is an hour away.  I am seriously thinking about trying to start one but have no clue how to go about it.   You guys have been so AWESOME with your quilting advice, who better to ask?  I've done a little bit of searching online but firsthand experience about the pitfalls and what works and what doesn't from someone who has been there is more interesting to me.  Could you tell me do's and don'ts and of course, stories are always good!  Just how big a commitment is this we're talking about?

Linking up with: 

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Thank you for stopping by!  Please do come again . . .

2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

Hello, my name is Janice and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the final week of the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.   Thank you to our hostesses Cheryl at Meadowmist Designs, Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, and Stephanie at Late Night Quilter for sponsoring this learning experience for us new bloggers!  Be sure to visit their blogs for a chance at some great prizes!!

So I'll start off with a bit about me.  I am married with three children, only one of whom is left at home right now.  Currently, we are living with my husband's parents while we are remodeling an old farm house.  The original farmhouse is TINY, a shack, really.  Only about 800 square feet and built in the early 1900's.  Here it is . . .

We tore everything out and down to the studs.  Redid everything so it's basically going to be like a brand new house.

Next comes wall raising for extra rooms . . .

My middle son, my daughter, my nephew all push the wall up while my husband nails it into place.  And before you get all impressed that we are doing this all on our own, without any professionals,  you should probably know that my husband is a builder by trade!

So here is how it looks after all the new square footage is added so it is now a 3 bedroom, two bath house with a sun room!  One of the bedrooms used to be a root cellar under the house and is now a really nice sized bedroom which will probably be my sewing room until we move into our permanent home.  This will be a temporary house while we wait for our final home to be built.

And here is what it looks like now!

At the moment, the place we live is up in the mountains and the wifi is horrible up there so I drove down the mountain to the nearest town in a car with no AC.  I'm hot and windblown.  But I have to have wifi to get this post done!  Sorry, no pretty dressed up pictures of me this time.   This is me in all my messed up glory!  :D

OK, now lets get onto the quilting part of the story!  

I have been piecing quilt tops off and on (mostly off) for the last 15 years. It all started with a pack of 100 5-inch squares that I bought from ebay.  This would have been before they started calling them charm packs, I guess.

Much to my son's chagrin (it's his) it took me five years to finish just the piecing part and then paying what seemed like a small fortune for someone to quilt it for me meant that I kind of lost interest in quilting for a while . . . we're talking years.

Then just this past April 2016, my BFF (best quilty friend) taught me how to quilt on my Bernina (I did a post showing her wonderful talents here) and I just started gobbling up all the information I could find on FMQ and started practicing.  I LOVE FMQing!!!   That is Free Motion Quilting for those of you who don't quilt.  This is my first attempt.

Needs work, but I am hooked!

 I have been reading all the wonderful quilting blogs out there, (which is how I found this blog hop) and buying Craftsy classes, and watching everybody making the most gorgeous things!

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of quilts to show you because I've only made three . . .   all baby quilts.

Quilt #1

Quilt #2  Same quilt, only in in pink.

Quilt #3 was made for my neice's baby who was SUPPOSED to be a girl but he came out a boy!

And last but not least is a work in progress (WIP in quilt lingo!) and I really need some advice on this.  I've never quilted a big quilt and I'm very nervous about this.  It is a chevron pattern and usually, I think you're supposed to start quilting from the middle and work your way out, correct?  But since this is a chevron and I'm going to be attempting feathers in the white parts, wouldn't I start from the edge and work my way to the other side?  Any advice for me before I start this would be MOST appreciated! Also, this picture doesn't show it but I sewed an additional 2" strip between the bottom of every chevron and the top of the heart rows as the pattern called for.  It made it look a little more balanced but leaves kind of some odd spaces between each heart because that row is not a true chevron.  Not sure what to put there.

 Another snag I ran into is the amount of fabric the pattern said to purchase for the back was just BARELY enough to match the quilt top.  I have heard horror stories about people quilting a quilt and finding that the quilting caused the backing to be too small.  Yikes!  So to make sure I didn't run into that problem, I added this on the back using scraps from trimming the hearts.  So that presents a problem in that whatever I quilt on the front is not going to match this at all unless I do an allover pattern.  Should I care about that?  Or should I go ahead with my plan to do feathers in the chevrons?  I plan on using thread to match whatever color I'm quilting over so I'm not sure what is going to end up on this part of the back.  This is getting complicated!!  I didn't really know there were so many things to consider!

Our blog mentors asked that we share a blogging tip so here is my tip.  Make your pictures big!  I see these beautiful pictures but sometimes I can't see the detail very well.  Unfortunately, I can only advise those who use the Blogger platform.  When you insert your picture, click on your picture and then choose XLarge.  This will make your picture as large as it can be without flowing outside your post area.  If you click Original Size some of your picture won't show.

A quilting tip?  Make friends with people who know what they are doing!! Ha! Ha!  That is EXACTLY why I started this blog because I am hoping I can count on more experienced blogger/quilters out there to guide me in my journey.  I have SO MANY questions all the time!

Earlier in my blogging career (a month ago, hee! hee!)  I took an informal survey of other quilters who I had been talking with and asked them if they were a one-at-a-time project quilter or multiple.  My motivation for asking this question was to justify to myself having too many different projects going all at once.  You all came through with flying colors!  I only met ONE person who prefers to work on one project at a time.  The rest of you have anywhere from 5 to 10 projects in the works at all times.  And since I've read some of your goals since then I'm pretty sure there are bunches of out there with waaaaaay more than even that.  Some of you up in the 20's!   

So how many projects do you have going right now?  Let's see who has the most!

Last but not least is a random fact about me.  Before I got so interested in quilting, I collected antique perfume bottles and even created a website in 1997 called Passion for Perfume.  It still exists but unfortunately, that poor baby has been sadly neglected in favor of sewing. In fact, I probably could make my blog a little prettier and more professional than it is, but I prefer to spend my time sewing!   Trying to decide whether I want to keep the perfume site or not.  Here is an example of the kind I collect, er, used to collect:

Well, I have been having a WONDERFUL time with learning how to quilt and making new friends!  I love comments and suggestions and will always try to respond to every single one.  

There are three hives to visit and I belong to Miss Bee- Hivin' with the cutest logo made by the talented Amista from Hilltop Custom Designs. 

Please be sure to visit the other ladies in my hive and give them some comment love!!

Blog Hop Week 4 - July 18th

Hannah @ unsophisticated+jejune

Susan @ Sevenoaks Street Quilts

Amista @ Hilltop Custom Designs

Janice @ Color, Creating, and Quilting! (you're already here)  

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you'll come again!

Linking to: 

Monday Making at Love, Laugh,  Quilt

Podunk Pretties

Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework