I'm a guest blogger at Stash Manicure today!!!

Hi everyone,

I'm guest blogging at Stash Manicure today.

Go check it out.

I share some of my first quilts and some of my newer ones.

Like this one!!

So, go on over to Stash Manicure and comment on my post.

Send me a little love over there! LOL!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Ariane

A sneak peak!!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well.

Yesterday, I rested most of the day.

I was really exhausted.

I just needed a really good sleep.

So, I had a late morning nap, and I felt so, so much better after.

I decided to quilt my Little Red Dresden quilt.

It took me about 5 hours to quilt it.

I had to take a break to pick up the kids from school.

Then, my dogs got out of the gate in the back yard.

I took us about 30 minutes to find them.

Good thing they were still together.

Their tongues were hanging out and

they were just strolling around the neighbourhood,

 on a grand adventure

Then I had to make supper.

It was pretty late when I finally finished quilting it.

But, now I just have to put the binding on and it will be done.

Woohooo!!!

There's a lot of quilting in this quilt.

I tried different patterns that I hadn't done before.

And considering I did it on my old White sewing machine,

It turned out quite nice.

I really like it.

Well, I'm keeping you in suspense about how the finished product looks.

I'm keeping the reveal for a special post.

I hope you all have a great day.

Hugs

Ariane

Mug Rugs and The Black Friday day Accuquilt sale!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you have all had a great day. I was off work today. Yeah!!!!! I had some housework to catch up on and some errands to do.

But I did take a bit of time to sew a few mug rugs. I thought I would make 2 mug rugs as teacher gifts. I made Christmas mug rugs for these. I'm going to add a nice mug, some hot chocolate, chocolate, and maybe a few baked goods to the gift too. I think that will make a nice gift for their teachers.

I had purchased the GO! Holiday Medley die the other day. So, I decided to use the snowflake to add to my mug rugs. I love it!!! I think the GO! Cutter is definitely great to cut applique pieces. They just come out so perfectly cut. I just added fusible web to the fabric before I cut it, and it's ready to fuse right away. So simple. Sew, here are my two Christmas mug rugs.

Last year, I had bought a fat quarter of Christmas fabric that had the little snowman postage stamp images on it. I thought that these pictures would look great on the mug rug. So, I just cut them out and fused them on too. Sew, each mug rug is similar, but different.

Here's a closer look at each of them.

And since I just love my GO! Cutter,

I thought I would pass on the Black Friday Sale information that I received today.

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AccuQuilt’s Black Friday Sale – Lowest Prices Ever!

AccuQuilt is giving its blogger friends a sneak peek of their upcoming Black Friday sale! As you all know, Black Friday has become a great shopping tradition among Americans everywhere. However, a majority of consumers now prefer to shop online to escape the dangers of stampede and the hassles of long lines at stores. If you can’t find the items you want, it’s easy to hop from one store website to the next without being disappointed. Savvy online shoppers know how to get the most out of Black Friday sales by utilizing blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other websites to get the inside track on tremendous sales.

AccuQuilt is offering the lowest prices ever on some of their most popular items plus special Daily Deals you don’t want to miss! AccuQuilt’s Black Friday sale begins on Wednesday, November 24th and ends on Cyber Monday, November 29th! Don’t miss out – visit accuquilt.com starting Wednesday to place your order!

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Well, that's all for today!

Hopefully I can get a few more projects done tomorrow.

Hugs

Ariane

Just a quick post!

Hi Everyone!!!

This is just a quick little post to share the block I received from Brenda.

This is the block she made for me for the Maple Leaf Bee.

I love it!!!

I know this is going to be a gorgeous quilt when I get all the blocks back.

Here it is.



Well, that's all folks.

I'm exhausted.

Can't......wait.....to.....hit....my.......pillow!

Yaaaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn!

Goodnight!

Ariane

What to do with left over hst's? Part 2

In my last post about hst's, I made two potholders.

This time I decided to pull out a little bag of left over hst's to make a mug rug.

In the picture below are the hst's left over from making blocks for the first modern siggy swap.

I had just put them in a ziplock bag together. They were not ironed open.

So, I set out to iron them with the seams open. I prefer to have the seams open because it keep the seams straight.

Then I cut all the dog ears off.

I didn't trim them more than that, because they were so small already.

I tried a few different layouts.

I decided to use the second layout.

I started sewing all my pieces together.

I sewed them into four rows.

When I joined the rows together, I used pins to align them together.

Once it was all sewn, I picked my backing and batting out.

Then I quilted it very simply.

There are a lot of seams in this one.

So, the simpler quilting made it easier.

This mug rug finished at 5½ " x 10½"

The hst's finished at 1¼ inch square.

I still have some of these hst's left.

This is the second project I make with them too. 

Remember when I made these two potholders for a potholder pass swap!

So, don't get rid of those hst's. They can come in handy for a little project.

Hugs

Ariane

The great tissue box challenge!

 My sister Michele @ Michele Made Me is hosting

The Great Tissue Box Challenge!!!

She made these wonderful tiny little house ornaments to hang in the Christmas tree.

She used one tissue box to make a whole bunch of them.

Now she is challenging you to make some too.

I was visiting with her on the weekend and took some pictures of her little houses.

They are just gorgeous!!!

She has even posted a template to make the houses here.

You really should go check it out.

She is giving away a $30 gift certificate to the etsy shop of your choice.

That would be a great start to your Christmas shopping.

So, go check it out.

Hugs

Ariane

What to do with left over hst's?

I had all these left over hst's, and decided I wanted to make something with them.

These were also left over from my "Jack in the pulpit" quilt.

I wanted to make a little project.

Something that could be done in an hour or so.

So, I decided to make potholders.

So, I laid out my hst's until I had a pattern that I liked.

Then I sewed it all together until I had my block.

Then, I got another piece of fabric for the backing that was about an inch bigger all around. I made my quilt sandwich: backing, 2 layers of insulating batting (can't remember the name) and then my block.

Then, I quilted it, and put the binding on.

And Voilà!!

Now, I have a cute little potholder.

I made another one too.

But I used some other scraps as well.

Here it is.

And together, they make a cute pair.

I hope you like them!!

What do you do with your left over hst's?

Hugs

Ariane

 



Christmas Quilt Show @ Sew Cal Gal

Hi everyone,

SewGalCal's is hosting a wonderful Christmas Quilt Show on her blog.

So, I decided to participate.

I don't have a big Christmas quilt.

But I do have a little project.

I'm entering my "Santa is Coming" table runner in the quilt show.

This is one of the free tutorials I made using my GO! Cutter Isosceles Die.

I just love this little table runner.

I really have fun coming up with this pattern.

Here are a few close-up's.

I hope you like the table runner.

The tutorial to make this can be found here.

Thanks SewGalCal for hosting this quilt show.

Don't forget to go check out all the other quilts in the show here.

There are many prizes to be won.

So, go enter your Christmas quilt.

Hugs

Ariane

HST inspiration from flickr

I thought I would share a little HST ( half-square triangles) inspiration from flickr.

I've been thinking of making a quilt using hst's.

I hope you like my mosaic.

1. Red Diamonds, 2. Chinene's Quilt close up, 3. Make...Sailboats, 4. Botany HST quilt, 5. Pinwheel Quilt, 6. HST quilt, 7. Quilt for Maritza, 8. HST Overload Quilt, 9. Doll Quilt Swap - Received!, 10. Larger DQS Inspired Quilt 1, 11. DSCN1230, 12. MT swap quilt from Erin, 13. Star Quilt - Top, 14. HST layout, 15. Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt, 16. Second Charm Quilt

Quilt Story Blog by Fresh Poppy Design has a great hst quilt tutorial, here it is.
Part 1
Part 2

Hugs

Ariane

A little organization

Hi everyone,

It's been a busy day around here.

It's my oldest birthday today.

He is 15 years old.

I can't believe it.

Kids grow so fast.

So, we celebrated tonight with a nice dinner.

My in-laws came over and celebrated with us too.

I was busy organizing this all afternoon.

But this morning, I went to Home Depot after dropping the kids off to school.

I had seen these large basket that clip together for only $2.99.

I thought they would be perfect to organize my scraps.

Remember this picture!!!

These are some of my scraps.

They fill a large black garbage bag. LOL!!!

I know!! I know!!

It's a lot!

I had brought them to my sister's to make little quilts in September
 and had put them in a large garbage bag.
 They have remained in that garbage bag ever since.

I used to have them in a large wicker laundry basket,
 but it was so overflowing and
I couldn't always find what I was looking for
without dumping the entire things.

So, I bought 10 large baskets and
here is the start of my scrappy re-organization.

This is about half the garbage bag sorted.

Ahhhhhh!!!!

I have a lot of work to do.

The thing I like about this system,

is that I can see what I have.

If I need a little piece of something,

 I just go into that color basket and grab something.

I'm the type of person that gets inspired by the fabric itself.

I usually impulse buy a fabric because I like it,

 then decide what I'm going to use it for when I get home.

 One good thing is that I haven't been buying much fabric lately.

This is so hard to do.

Because there are so many wonderful collections I want to buy.

But I only have a small sewing space.

 If you recall, it's only 5 feet by 8 feet.

 It's like a walk in closet.

I have so much stuff in this room,

I can just basically walk in two steps,

and sit at my sewing desk.

That's it.

No more space!!!

I could barely get this picture,

because I couldn't back up. LOL!!!

So, it's time to organize.

Now, I'll be able to see what I have and make

mug rugs,

 scappy quilts,

 place mats,

table runners,

pot holders,

zippy pouches,

etc.

Back to work for me.

My scraps are calling.

Hugs

Ariane



My 1st mug rug, and things to swap???

Hi everyone!

Today I decided to tackle my first mug rug.

The one I made is a little bit big.

It's 7.5 x 14 inches.

But I still like it.

This is only my first attempt.

I will keep trying and hopefully I will come up with just the perfect one.

This one is made out of pieces that I had left from cutting some dresden plates for my Bee blocks.

I thought it would be the perfect way to use them up.

I also worked on making some of my Bee blocks.

This first one I made for Austen.

I hope she likes it.

This second one I made for Brenda.

Unfortunately, I ran out of dark grey.

She didn't send quite enough.

But I enjoyed working on it.

I still sent it to her and she will be able to use her leftovers to finish it.

I do want to make this block again.

I am also hoping to find someone who would be willing to swap some fabric with me.

I have this Heather Bailey Pop Garden fabric shown below.

I would be willing to swap either fat quarters of each of the four prints, or even half yard cuts, for an equal amount of fabric.

I also have two Amy Butler patterns that I would like to trade for fabric.

I also have these four other patterns that I'm willing to trade for fabric.

I love all kinds of fabrics.

 Collections I'm trying to add to my stash are:

1) any modern fabrics. (not orange)

 2)some Minick and Simpson fabrics from any of their collections.

3) any Bonnie and Camille fabric

4) I don't really use batics, so I'm not interested in these.

5) I also love country fabrics.

6) I would also take scraps of fabric. LOVE scraps!!!

7) Red is my favorite color. But I like blues, greens, brown, aqua, pink. But not orange.

So, If any of these interest you, send me an email with pictures of what you would like to trade.

Hopefully someone will want these.

Hugs

Ariane

More Blocks done!!!

More blocks done for the Sew Modern Bee.

These two blocks are for Sylvia.

It's 2:20 am and I'm blogging.

What do you do when you can't sleep?

SEW!!!!

Hugs

Ariane

Limestone Quilter's Guild Mini Quilt Auction Photo's!!!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well.

I thought I would show you some of the photo's I took at the Mini Quilt Auction last week.

Not all my photo's turned out nice, so I'm only sharing some of the quilts.

The little quilt that stole the show, was this little one.

I'm not sure of the name of the woman who made it, but the guild decided to purchase this one and add it to their collection of quilts that they retain to share at all their shows.

It definitely deserved all the attention.

It's called:

 "Male Bonding"

Isn't it just adorable.

It made me laugh.

I absolutely love it!!!!

Here are a few mosaic of some of the other quilts.

As you can see, the quilts were so adorable.

I did purchase two quilts.

I had a lot of fun seeing all these little quilts.

I hope you like them.

Hugs

Ariane

Ah few things to share.....

Hi everyone,

I've been working the last two nights.

I've tried to switch most of my night shifts, but couldn't get rid of this weekends shifts.

Probably because we have the time change tonight and no one wanted to work a 13.75 hour night shift.

I don't really blame them.

It's going to be a long night tonight.

Ughhhhh!!!!

Well, I've been doing a little hand piecing. I don't know if you remember my hexagon star quilt that I'm hand piecing. It's been in the works for a long time. I do some work on it, then get tired of it, so I stop for a while. I decided to pick it up again.

I've completed two more rows of 17 stars. I have to make 15 rows of 17 stars. So now I have 9 rows completed.

Here's a pic of a few of the stars I just finished.

I don't have the two rows attached to the others yet.

At some point, I will do that.

This is one of those mindless sewing projects that I can do without thinking too much.

I've sewn so many of them, that it just comes really easy now.

The picture below is the last picture I took of the put together rows. I have one more row sewn to the body. I just don't have time tonight to take another picture of it. This is just to give you an idea of what the project is going to look like.

This is going to be a queen size quilt....at some point.

It may take me a few more years to finish it. But I still love it.

So, I'll keep working at it, bit by bit.

I hope you are all having a great weekend.

Hugs

Ariane