100 Quilts for Kids QAL!

Happy Quilting's Blog was announcing this upcoming QAL!!!

I just had to share this with you all. 

I will definitely be joining in the fun! 

Lisa S. and I were just talking about this yesterday!! 

100 Quilts for Kids is an annual charity quilt drive co-hosted by Katie Blakesley ofSwim, Bike, Quilt and the DC Modern Quilt Guild.  


The idea is simple: 

Make a quilt or 2. Donate it to a child in need, locally if you can.  

Enjoy a blog hop that runs from July 2-September 25, 2012, complete with inspiration and mini prizes. 

Join in on a 100 Quilts for Kids Quilt Along (Kick-off post on July 15 at Swim, Bike, Quilt)

Have a chance to win great prizes from sponsors, including Moda, Fat Quarter Shop,Westwood Acres, Rowan , Free Spirit, and Ty Pennington Impressions, among others that will shortly be announced. 

Spread the word to family and friends!

and most importantly, Smile, knowing you used your skills for good. 

100 Quilts for Kids Flickr Group 
More information on 100 Quilts for Kids

The Blog Hop Starts on Monday and it will be chuck full of inspiration and ideas!!


100 Quilts Blog Hop Participants

July 2: Lynne @ Lily’s Quilts

July 9: Dana @ Dana and Thread
Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

July 16: Lee @ Freshly Pieced

July 23: Katy @ Monkey Do
Erin @ Sewing Summit

July 30: Dana @ Old Red Barn Co
Heather @ Olive & Ollie

August 6: Jessica @ Twin Fibers
Holly @ Bijou Lovely

August 13: Leigh @ Leedle Deedle Quilts
Heather & Megan @ Quiltstory 

August 20: Melissa @ Happy Quilting    (That's Me :)  

August 27: Jeni @ In Color Order
Miranda @ One Little Minute

September 3: Ellen @ The Long Thread 
Faith @ Fresh Lemons Quilts

September 10: Elizabeth @ Oh, Frannson!
Anne Marie @ Gen X Quilters

September 17 Cheryl @ Dining Room Empire
Jane @ Quilt Jane

September 24: Angela @ Moda Home Mom

September 25: Sara @ Sew Sweetness

Nine Patch Quilt-A-Long Tutorial

I have been trying to find new ways to use up my scraps & make fun quilts for my Quilted Hugs Project!

Today I counted and so far I have 13 finished Quilts!!
I also have 18 finished quilt tops!
That makes a total of 31 quilts! WOW! I cannot believe that I have made so many already.
Go me!

After finishing sewing the binding on my last few quilts today I decided to find a way to use more scraps and make some more quilt tops.
I have enough fabric to make another Stringy Quilt.
Those come together soooo fast!

I like changing things up. I can not seem to make more than two quilts in any one pattern or method  before it just seems boring.

SO....
I decided to do a Quilt-A-Long (QAL).
I have tons of strips of fabric in my scrap basket and they seem to be constantly multiplying.
I don't like to use any strips larger than 3 inches, so those tend to sit on the bottom of the basket and just get in my way.
I decided to pull them out and see how many I had.
I was very surprised that I have sooo many large and long strips of fabric 3 inches wide or larger.

SEW... I decided to do a Nine Patch-A-Day QAL!
These are so easy and it's not hard to make one nine patch per day.

The fun will start on July 5th!
That gives you a week to get your fabric together, match up fabrics, cut any scraps to the required size, etc. (Note: If you have a jelly roll feel free to use that. Your blocks will finish a little smaller, but it will still turn out GREAT!!)

Here is a quick tutorial on how to make a nine patch for our QAL...

Materials Needed:
Aprox 3 yards of
Scrap fabric 3 inches by at least 18 inches long
(You can also use a jelly roll and your blocks will turn out smaller. Just make sure to cut your pieces
 2 1/2 inches wherever it says to cut 3 inches in the tutorial.)

1. Sew strips aprox. 9 inches down the length of the fabric, right sides together.

You should end up with this. 

2. Cut sewn strip into Three 3 inch sections.

3. Out of the remaining fabric cut two 3 inch squares out of fabric A and one 3 inch square out of fabric B

4. Sew the 3 inch squares onto your pieces making three alternating sections. (See picture above)

5. Press seams towards the darker fabric.

6. Sew the three sections together to make a nine patch block. Make sure to match your seams.

7. Press open seams.

Your yield should be one nine patch block that finishes at 7 3/4. 

I am going to make one block per day for the next 36 days.
That will give me enough blocks to make a nice lap quilt for my Quilted Hugs Project!

Please join me and leave a comment to let me know that you are playing along.
I would love to see your progress so please follow my blog and then post about this fun Nine Patch QAL!!

I will post soon about how to turn these blocks into a quilt top.

Hugs,
Lisa 

Sewing & Quilting Update - BIG NEWS!!

With all of this Yard Work, I have not spent a lot of time in the sewing room.

Thankfully I was able to spend some time sewing with Lisa this week.

I did not get a whole lot completed, but it is nice that I was able to do some!!

It beats a blank.

I finished this block that is one of my Star Quilt-A-Long blocks!

This is all I completed of another block.

I pre-cut all of the fabric for this Star Quilt-A-Long.

Apparently, I did not cut this block correctly.
I am missing some fabric, so...

I will have to go back to the cutting mat and cut the additional fabric to complete this block.

Silly Ol' Me!

Here is Lisa in action!

She is working on the scrap quilt that you see on her design wall behind her.

And here comes the BIG NEWS......

Guess what my WONDERMUS HUBBY got me..........

I have waited for this for a LONG TIME!!

Can you guess??

Did you guess?????

Detto got me a ROWENTA Steam Iron!!!

I am sooooo excited!

I LOVE IT!!

I am soooooo Blessed!

This will make it so much easier to iron all of the quilt blocks & tops!

This will definitely help me with my Quilted Hugs Challenge.

Quilting at the Hotel

Thankfully I am home now...

I had to spend the weekend in conferences.

I brought my sewing machine and set up a make shift sewing area!

I cut down an old self healing cutting mat to 10X11 Inches so that I would have a travel size.

It worked out GREAT!

I brought some blocks that I had already cut out.

Lisa and I picked these out this Star Quilt-A- long to do in 2009!

They have been sitting on my shelf since then.

I also quilted this table runner while I was there.

It was small enough to finish in one night.

I laid out the blocks and then whipped them out.

I did not realize how load this machine was until I brought it to a hotel room!

LOL

I was able to finish FOUR blocks and my table runner!

I also worked on cutting out 4 applique blocks!

I am glad that I had lots to keep me busy.

Sitting in a hotel room by yourself is not as magical as some may think!



Shop Hop, Quilts and Process Update!

Today was the first day of our LQS (Local Quilt Shops) Shop Hop!!

This is the first one that Lisa and I have gone on together!! Yeah!

This is us at the Leesburg Store!!

We bought these great earing at the Leesburg Store!!

They are mini Rotary cutters that say "Quilter" on the handle!!

This is Me and Lisa in the Apopka Store!! One of our FAVORITE QUILT SHOPS!!

The kids like this store too!! They bring their books and play in the corner while Lisa and I shop!!

Stephen didn't want to come with us to this shop... Hmmmm I wonder why??

Alyssa and Kyle were pretending they were secret agents and this was their serious faces!! They were Crackin' me and the Employee's UP!! I was LOVIN' it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Updates ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is Jasmine trying to help me pin this Downy Quilts for Kids Quilt! I set it out so that I HAD to finish it!

I did pin it today. This is the one that Alyssa's Star's group was working on. I am just finishing it and quilting it for them. 

Last night I went over to Lisa's House to Sew for awhile...

We decided to cut blocks for our next QAL

I dont know why it took me SOOOOOO long, but I only got 7 1/2 out of 13 blocks cut!!

This is going to be a really cute quilt! We are using - Crazy Mom Quilts Star Quilt A Long! I cant wait to get started.... but first I have to finish Cutting my blocks!!

Here is my UPDATE on my Postage Stamp Quilt!! I cant believe how big it is!! It takes up Most of my design wall! I only need 4 more Big Blocks and I can start adding the borders! I spent over an hour at my LQS trying to figure out what kind of border I should do with this quilt! I think I might stick with something Light like a Tone on Tone, or Maybe a Solid Red, Or maybe a 1 1/4" Black Border and then a 3 1/2" Blue border, or maybe a 1" Cream & a 3" Blue Border. I need something to set this Busyness off. These are ALL 1 1/2 Inch finished pieces!! I LOVE THE WAY IT LOOKS UP CLOSE!!