Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Issue #7

Loving Quiltmaker right now. They are having a week long blog hop for their new issue, #7. I really enjoyed #6, so this one will be just as lovely. They always use such pretty colors in their example blocks. There are several block tutorials each day and they have made some really nice blocks.
Clicky right here to go see for yourself.

Things...

Are very busy around here right now. Tis the week before finals...
Sadly, my current quilting projects have sat and sat. Zero progress due to more and more homework projects and presentations as the semester reaches its end. Right before I got deluged in homework, I decided to make an addition to the Sweet Pea Quilt (and up the difficulty level =\).

I am making 3 of the block centers out of the Shasta Daisy Pattern over at Quilters Design Board.

I would post pictures of actual progress, but I have a cutting board piled in pieces, fabric, and snack bags. Not much to see right now. Then to add to the busy and shelve current projects, my sister-in-law is pregnant and my hubby thinks it's awesome when I make things for his family. =) So i'm making her a baby blanket and she is due in June.

In other news: Vroomans' Quilts has won the traveling stash!

Traveling Stash aka Pass it on Box

The Pass it on Box arrived a couple of days ago, and I have enjoyed going through the box and choosing a few things to trade. The box has some interesting pieces, for example, a sew and stuff santa and a sew and stuff cat. This box is mostly fabric, which is nice.

There are a few patterns and a christmas tree of buttons. I took out a few things.

And put in a few things.

The other nice thing about this box (in some ways) is that it currently fits in a medium size priority mail box. If you do straight trades, it will still fit. If you add a bunch, you will need to upgrade to the large box.

The Traveling Stashes are kept track of by Cherise over at Sewingly Along.
There are a few rules that go along with this giveaway, besides the fact that this box only travels the United States (due to shipping costs).

• Fabric only of quilting quality
• Items you would be proud to own
• Trade like sizes (FQ for FQ, Yd for Yd)
• Have an active blog
• Take and post pictures

For a complete list of the rules, please visit Sewingly Along's Rules List.

Leave a comment for a chance at the Traveling Stash. Good luck and I will pick a winner next Saturday, April 27th.

Christa's Year of Giveaways!

I follow a good many blogs and every so often one does a giveaway. Christa Quilts is starting a year of giveaways and is looking for suggestions for items we would like her to give away. I know I love fabric (and who doesn't), but there are many other quilting related items, such as thread, bobbins, pins, and (if you crazy quilt) lace, embroidery thread, buttons. The list is near endless.

Her blog typically follows her as she makes quilts, as a weekly tutorial. I follow her with email to make the posts easy to find.

There is a traveling stash on the way. Will have a post up with the giveaway once it arrives.

See Cherise's blog for details on how the traveling stash works.

April Showers

Mdm. Samm over at Sew We Quilt runs various blog hops over the course of the year. Currently running is the April Showers Blog Hop. I love to follow the hops, they are a great source of inspiration!

Minor Updates

Lately this blog looks like I win things all the time, which is not true. I just don't post that often. I have several UFO's and they get worked on as time permits, but posting is something that I seem to not have time for. (sometimes I just don't know what I want to say or I don't feel a project has enough progress to warrant 'look at me!")

The first update is for the lovely scenic applique quilt. I ended up removing the clouds and replacing them with more cloudy clouds =)

They are edged in a light grey blanket stitch for a cloud with a silver lining. (Please ignore the hair in front of the camera. hehe)

The revised 2x size Sweet Pea quilt is still in the cutting pieces phase. I have discovered that I will need 132 HSTs so this part is taking a bit of time. Particularly since I am also pairing fabric with fussy cuts at the same time. I ended up not grouping them with safety pins since they became a nuisance and I doubt the fabric pieces will travel much.

My last update is a counted cross stitch lighthouse. These come in kits and I love making them, they just seem to take quite a while to finish. I have one that remains a UFO and has been for at least 5 years. I also love the kits with scads of details, so that might be why they take awhile =)

I would love to say that my New Year's Resolution is to blog more. Unfortunately until my college semester ends in early May, finding the time to even work on projects is difficult. To give you an idea.. I enter my Senior year this fall for a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, with the Individualized Option in Accounting. I am taking 5-6 classes a semester (for a total of 15-18 credits) to graduate next Spring. The Pennsylvania State University decided to add presentations to every class, which has increased everyone's homework. Hard to say by how much, but our usual homework is Read a Chapter and Answer a Few Questions or for english we may have a paper to write and for math a list of problems to solve. Normal homework. Presentations are a bit more complicated. They are akin to writing a report, usually require a powerpoint slide and that you talk in front of the class. These are not really a big deal, but they do take up more time then my usual homework assignments. Adding them to every class, even English and Accounting courses was not a welcome change. 

New Project

So here I am planning a new quilt. I love the quilt 'Sweet Peas' that was printed up in the Feb. 2005 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

I love the stars and the lovely sashing, but the finished size is only 38" and I want a close to bed size quilt. Now what I'm wondering is: can you 'double the recipe' like you do with cooking? I have 12" squares planned and I plan to grow the sashing from 2" to 4". Any one know if this will work?
To be clear, the original has 6" blocks, 2" sashing, 2 91/4" squares cut in an X, and 2 51/8" squares cut in an X.
I'm 'doubling' to: 12" blocks with 4" sashing. I'm not sure how to double the triangles.

You can see placement here for a better idea of how things go together. The 51/8" squares become the corner triangles and the 91/4" squares become the triangles on the sides.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Alice @ The Pin and Thimble. I won this beautiful fabric in her first ever giveaway! 

She even sent a little postcard with it to congratulate me!

Another huge THANK YOU goes to Gretchen @ 120 Blocks. I won her scrappy giveaway!

I got 1 magazine and a bunch of scraps. Not sure why she calls some of them scraps. Some are almost a quarter yard! =)

These pictures I 'borrowed' off her website. I was enjoying playing with them and organized them and put them away before I remembered to take pictures =(

The last package that arrived was from Kristen @ Meadowbrook. I won her giveaway of an Olfa circle cutter!

I'm 'borrowing' this picture from her giveaway. So hard to not get glare on this picture. Must be a trick to it =) Can't wait to find a project to use it on! THANK YOU KRISTEN!