Give Away Winner!

Thanks to everyone who commented and all the new followers! The lucky quilter is Margaret who said

"I am thankful that I get to spend another holiday season with my husband. Thanks for the giveaway."

Congrats Margaret!  I've sent you an email. 

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend!

~Lea Anne~

Sew much to do and sew little time

Good Monday morning!  Did everyone spend the weekend preparing for thanksgiving?  Not me, I canned Horseradish.  I now have the clearest sinuses of my life.  Shew that stuff is powerful.  

How about another little peek at those spools!

All the sections are finally together.  Don't you just love the  Scrumptious line of fabric?  Currently I'm working on designing a little lot of embroidery for the larger gray areas in the quilt.   Since designing embroidery is a first for me, it's taking a tad bit longer than expected.  My biggest problem is decided between tons of color or whitework embroidery.  

The quilt behind the spools is ready to be loaded and quilted as soon as I can piece a backing.  It's just so colorful and fun it  had to work it into the pictures.

Okay I guess you can see the whole plan.  They now look like white spools instead of gray ones.  Our holiday plans have changed, so hopefully by next Friday the instructions will be ready to post.    We were originally  going to have a 2 day holiday now its a 4 days of family and food.  What could be better!? 

You can find more design walls over at Judy's.

~Lea Anne~

Giving Thanks-Quilters' Blog Hop Party!

There's a party going on and you're invited!  Quilters from around the globe will giving away all sorts of yummy quilting and crafting prizes.  So I hope you take the time to hop over to The Quilting Gallery, give Michelle the wonderful host some quilty love.  She'll be posting the list of participants later this afternoon.  The Giving Thanks Quilters' Blog Hop will start today Nov. 21 and end on 26th.

  

Before sharing my blog hop prize I wanted to share a new free pattern designed by yours truly.  Just a little peek.  My two test blocks. 

I'll be posting the instructions for the quilt sometime next week.  I'll be a smaller quilt, about 50x60.   A great size for a wall hanging or a lap quilt.  

Well since this blog hop is all about FREE STUFF I should let the new visitors know about the free patterns here on my blog.   Both of these patterns below are free on the tutorials tab at the top of blog.  Don't forget to send me pictures if you make one of my quilt patterns.  It just tickles me pink!  

Now it's PARTY TIME!

I've a fat quarter bundle for one lucky follower.  Le Jardin by P&B Textiles.  

All you need to do is leave a comment and be a follower.  What kind of comment?  Well how about you tell me what your thankful for.  It could be something big or small.  I'll start it out by saying I'm thankful for water pressure in the shower!  Because for about 2 weeks this month we had very little water pressure.  I've long hair and I couldn't get the shampoo out of my hair.  And don't flush the toilet UNTIL after you wash your hands if  you have little water pressure.  It's the little things that we take for granted.  The give away will close on Nov. 26, 2013 at midnight and the winner will be announced on Wednesday Nov. 27, 2013 using a random number generator.   

Good luck to everyone and thanks for stopping by my little spot in Podunk!

~Lea Anne~

  

W.I.P. Wednesday

Just had to share these cute little baskets from Lori Holts Quilty Fun book and sew-along.  After cutting the fabric it only took 15 minutes to chain piece these 6.5" blocks together.  

 Blue basket print, from my 1980's stash

 And so is the red print, and there's some more of that vintage teal/aqua that's popped up in a couple other quilts I've made.

 That pink basket handle is from a pair of my pajama pants...RECYCLE Cuteness!

 Don't you just love working with bright fabrics when its gloomy and cold outside?  Makes the day seem so much brighter.

These are my close your eyes and grab courthouse steps for this weeks block.  

So much color!

Here's a song that's sure to put a rainbow in your heart on a gloomy day.

Not the best video but this song always puts a smile on my face.  A beautiful melody of two songs.

~Lea Anne~

Another quilt finish

Well it's almost done.  Now to find that misplaced black binding.  I know I'll find it as soon as I cut more...isn't that how it usually goes?  So I'm showing you anyway without binding and with horrible lighting.  

The light weight poly batting worked well for the minimal quilting.

Rarely do I work with poly batting and if I do it's not light weight.  Most quilters nowadays steer clear of 100% poly.  But you know me, living on the edge!  Yeah right!   Sometimes you just need to do your own thing and not listen to the critics.  Throw the rules out the window.  Its your quilting and your rules.

I've quilted thing to death for so long that this quilt feels odd.  When I pick it up its so light and fluffy feeling.  

The corner motif matches other cherry squares

Simple zigzag on the border.

I love the back!  Pulled from the vintage yardage stash.  Love the little roses! Can't wait to use the scraps from this backing in a quilt.  Too Cute! 

~Lea Anne~

Going home

I was going to post my lasted finished quilt, but no good lighting today.  So instead I'll take you for a trip down memory lane.

This week I've been helping mom and dad around the house, painting mostly.  Above is where I spent my childhood.  I'm standing halfway down the drive.  Long walk in the snow and rain to catch the school bus!   So much has changed.

Here's the view from what was my bedroom and is now mommas sewing room.  My dad and I planted these walnut trees that were no bigger than a pencil when we planted them , there are 50 of them that line the property. 

This old broken down wagon could also be seen from my bedroom.  Back in the day it was functional.  Many an afternoon was spent in this wagon pretending to be Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie.  

If you look closely you can see the green and red paint.

There was no cable TV, no game systems, no Internet, all we had was our imagination.  Mom and dad still live fairly simple, still no cable and no Internet, they don't even have caller ID on their land line phone!

Things certainly have changed over the years.  The blackberry and grape vines have been taken over by mulberry trees.

 Nothing but a brush pile where the one acre veggie garden used to grow, and this is where I learned to drive.

 Only a few trees left in the orchard that dad planted 3 yrs after moving here.

His old truck that he bought when I was about 8 still sits in the drive.

It only seems like yesterday that he built this shed from wood skids ...now its about to fall apart.

So nice to walk around the property and reminisce...

As a little girl I loved milkweed...pulling the soft seeds out and letting them fly in the wind.

Kids today don't know what they're missing.

~Lea Anne~

Design Wall Monday 11-11-13

I'm participating in the Quilty Fun Sew Along hosted by Lori Holt.  The finishing instructions for block 2 were posted this morning at Nana Company.  Amy's blocks are super cute!  You gotta check out her blog!  Lots of inspiration!  After receiving my book last week(hubby surprised me and order it, what a sweetheart)  I decided to go super duper scrappy and use anything and everything in this quilt.  Lori wrote about how her Grandmother used whatever fabric she had on hand to make quilts.  So that's what I'm doing.  There's two stars made from shirts, can you guess which two?  

Bet you're wondering how I finished them so quickly.  By working ahead of schedule and making the blocks before the setting instructions come out on Mondays.  All my little stars were made last week but I hadn't sewn them together as a set until this morning.  It took more time to set up for this photo than it did to finish sewing them together.  

That's all folks!  I'm quilting and not designing this week.  So if you need more inspiration I've link up with Judy over at Patchwork Times, hop on over and be inspired by all the design walls.  I'm always in awe of what quilters are stitching up!

~Lea Anne~

(if your still wondering which two are shirtings its the orange and the navy blue)

Cherry Blossom Marmalade quilt finished!

Since Friday I've been trying to get good pictures to share of this quilt.  Fridays pictures came out over exposed with bad lighting.  And then yesterday I couldn't get outside to take pictures because of the wind.  Phewy!  I'll just share what I have.

 There's a tutorial with templates under the tutorials tab at the top of the blog for this block.  No finishing instructions, so here's a quick finishing note.  Background for the Dresden cut at 18.5 inches.  Sashing and cornerstone strips cut at 1.5 inches.  I've no idea the yardage required, flew by the seat of my pants.

The original plan for quilting this was simple straight line cross hatching in the background.

 I used Invisafil 100 wt. thread on the entire quilt.  Great for those bump back feathers, the backtracking is invisible!

 80/20 batting to give me the puffy effect.

Remember those awful sashing strips?  I used all but one set on the backing.

 This is why I love white as a backing.  Sometimes you get a two sided quilt.  Well if you don't need to work in a colorful mistake.....

I took some pictures Friday morning when attaching the binding .  The colors came out great.  Because there's no borders on this quilt, a small quarter inch binding was necessary in order to keep my nine patches uniform.  

 The binding strips were cut at 1.75 inches, and stitched with a quarter inch foot to the front, and hand stitched to the back.

 When I rounded the corner into the studio this is what I saw.  Such a pretty site.  I had to have a picture!

Linking up today with Connie and Judy, hop on over and be inspired!

~Lea Anne~