Quilting Lodge Blog: Quilter's Blog Hop Party Giveaway!

Quilting Lodge Blog: Quilter's Blog Hop Party Giveaway!http://samanthashouse.blogspot.ca/2012/08/back-to-school-blog-hop.html

Back to School Blog Hop

Did you know it is only a short time before all the kids are back in school?  A hush comes over the streets where we live and we know summer is over, gee so short.  But to ease into fall there is a terrific Back to School Blog Hop here where you can enter for lots of giveaways.  I just found a wonderful Canadian quilt shop FlareFabrics with great prices and Free Shipping in Canada.  I just love their line of modern fabrics so click on the above and go have a look and don't forget to enter the Blog Hop.

New FMQ Design

As you all know, I am constantly practicing FMQ and trying new designs.  This week I finished up a small charity quilt that will go to our Palliative Care Unit.  There are so many good FM Quilt Alongs on the internet now, like Leah Day and Oh Fransson.  I follow them and try out many, some I can do and some are too challenging.  I used a new petal leaf design from Oh Fransson on this quilt and I am pretty pleased, need more practice.  It was quick to do and blended the strips.  Here is my finished product.

I need to get some pickles done up and the tomatoes are coming in fast.  Harvest is in full swing and Canadian farmers in Manitobia, Saskatchewan and Alberta and having bumper crops.  Chat with you soon.

Fun Fabric Friday

Has anyone been stashing up on good fabric sales.  I did, and today 4 packages arrived. WooHoo!  The sale is still on over here at Quilt It Shop.  This is their annual big inventory sale and I think it is terrific at $4.50 and $4.00 a yard on all inventory.

The bundle on the left is creams and neutrals for some pillows/place mats.  I got 2 baby panels and the center bundle are some coordinates.  The panels are 24" wide so need to add something.  Third bundle is for a modern quilt with a grey background fabric.  I am going to a Christmas Craft Sale in late November so I am sewing for that.  I love all the fabrics I received and it was like Christmas in August for sure today.  Also, the shipping was terrific too so go see what they have.

Christmas in August

Just catching up on what everyone is up to.  I finally have a small item finished to show you.  This table runner is done with Christmas scraps so I am calling it "Christmas in August".  I am liking how it turned out and I have been wanting to try some circular quilting and this seemed like a good project.  I did rows spaced 1/2" apart and staggered the circles across the runner.  I didn't get a real good picture to show the design and the quilting but here goes.  The design is the small twister ruler.

The circles weren't that hard to do as I thought I might end up oval not circular but it all went pretty good.  I would like to try a bigger item, like a baby quilt.  I have no idea how far experienced quilters space their circular lines so if anyone out there can provide some insight, I would love to hear from you.

These photos are again taken in my flower garden.  I spent several hours last week cleaning out some of the expired flowers and moving some pots around.  It's good to be back online after our modem gave up on us leaving us for several days with no TV and no Internet!  Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Just a Funny Story

I don't have any new finished items and am struggling with some FMQ issues on my vintage machines. 

I do have a cute story that you might enjoy.  My hubby is in charge of the garden and we have a nice Nanking Cherry bush really loaded with berries that are very tasty.  Of course, our friendly robins, black birds, sparrows and anyone else living near by comes to check on whether or not the berries are ripe.  One day he decided he was not sharing and we own a rubber motion activated frog that we got at the Dollar Store which he mounted on a stick so that when the birds shook the branches around, this frog croaks 2-3 times.  There has not be any birds to speak of testing out this new feature.  Even the dog gets all disturbed when it squawks and wants to find it and kill it!  I picked the berries on the weekend  and left quite a bit for us and the birds to eat.  The berries are still there today.

Another annoying bird we have is Doves.  They try to nest in our evergreen so last year my thinker hubby installed a big rat trap on a board mounted on a stick that he pushed up inside the evergreen.  We never killed a bird with it but I will tell you when that thing went off with a terrific bang, everything evicted the tree.  So we got the Doves out of the evergreen but they just moved to the front yard tree which hangs over our car where they could poop all over it any time they wanted, like all day long.  Yesterday my hubby washed the car and today it is has about 6 big globs of Dove poop on it.  This afternoon I am hearing croaking sounds at the front of the house so the frog has moved locations.  I wonder what the mailman will think if it senses him walking by?  Anyway, we are having a lot of fun  with the frog and maybe he would even scare a burglar away.  Hubby makes me smile every day.

I am off to the Quilting Board to see if anyone has a solution to my problem.  I will try to get some pictures of works in progress later today.

I am having a few problems writing posts lately but I can post a picture so they are coming first.  How was your weekend?  Ours was splendid, couldn't get any better with family, pets, sunshine and food!  I made this little baby quilt from 2 charm pacs of California Girl, oh how I love that fabric and I could make another of this pattern, just so much fun with a modern flair.  I used the 3" twister ruler.  I FMQ using a free style pattern on my trusty antique machine. Hope you enjoy seeing this finished.