Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2016 - Gossamer

I love gifts. I love receiving them, and I really love giving them, especially quilty ones!   Last year I wanted to give a good friend an awesome gift. And of course it had to be quilted.  After brainstorming for awhile and looking online, I came up w/the idea for the best gift ever!

I came across Janeen at Quilt Art Designs who makes fabulous paper pieced patterns. I sent her a photo and asked if she could turn it into a  paper pieced pattern.  She absolutely could, and did! 

This is the photo I sent.  It's a pic of my friend's beloved classic bronco, whom he dubbed Gossamer.

This is the pattern she made.

Now all I had left to do was learn the fine art of paper piecing.  

I enlisted the help of my good friend and paper-piecer extraordinaire, Sue!  And for the next 5 weeks, I spent approximately 5 hrs each Thursday making Gossamer. You can read about in this post. 

And this is Gossamer!

I was so very pleased w/how he turned out so you can imagine how I felt when I found out he got an award at the Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show!  Yep! He got Honorable Mention! AND it was my first time entering an actual show! Can you say ECSTATIC?! You can read all about it in this post. 

Gossamer measures 22" x 22" and  is entered in the Small Quilt Category.  If he tickles your fancy as much as he tickles mine, I'd be over the moon if you vote for him!  Thank you!

This is my second time participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  My first time was Fall of 2014. You can read about that in this post. A big shout out to Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side for putting this lovely festival together! And huge thanks to the sponsors too for the fabulous prizes!

Linking up at:

A Thread for Life

WHOOMP There IT Is! #15 - Gossamer

Hello, and welcome to another edition of WHOOMP There IT Is!  And what a special edition it is!

People, I give you, Gossamer!

Late October, I started my very 1st paper pieced project as a Christmas gift for David. Earlier in the year, I sent a photo of his 1976 Ford Bronco, Gossamer, to Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilted Art Designs and she made it into a paper pieced pattern. She does fantastic work by the way and has MANY wonderful patterns. Be sure to check out her pattern store.

I had mentioned to some ladies at Quilters Anonymous about my plans to learn paper piecing in order to make this special gift and they pointed me in Sue's direction.  Sue is a wonderful teacher who does it all; paper piecing, quilting, embroidery, applique, etc and she makes beautiful tops, like the one she's wearing in the pic below.  She taught me the Judy Niemeyer technique of paper piecing. She said I was a fast learner and a dream student. Okay, so she didn't use the words "dream student" but, I know it's what she was thinking. ;)  On a quick side note: Sue just opened up her Etsy shop, AZ Quilted Angel, where she sells gorgeous handmade purses! Be sure to check out her shop as well!

All I'd done before I got to her house was pick out the fabrics I wanted to use.  She pinned up the guide and got me started on cutting out ALL the pieces. And there were a lot! I spent about 5 hours a day for 5 Thursdays at her house working on this masterpiece.  And in my eyes, it is a masterpiece!

This is all I got done the 1st week.

2nd week

3rd week

4th week

5th week

 I made her proud!

If it weren't for Sue coordinating my numbered fabrics w/the respective paper pieces and getting them all lined up for me, it would've taken me much longer to finish. Thank you, Sue!

I thought I would hate paper piecing but I've grown quite fond of it.  I decided early on that if I liked how Gossamer came out, I'd enter it in the Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show in March.  I'm extremely pleased w/this finish so it will definitely be entered! David will have to wait a few more months to hang this beauty on the wall!

So here's to my 1st paper pieced project AND my 1st quilt show entry!

Here's another of last week's finishes. The block is called Summer Breeze by Upstairs Hobby Room.

One last thing before I let you go, I've listed another pattern in my Craftsy Pattern Store. My Easy Grocery Bag Catcher pattern is free for a limited time so be sure to download your copy today!

So that's all I've got folks! How about you? Do tell!

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WHOOMP There IT Is! #14 - UFO Challenge 2016

Hello, Everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful week.  Mine has been a bit crazy w/my day job but the weekend is just about here and that makes me happy!

Something else that makes me happy is all of the lovelies I'm going to make this year! I wrote about 4 of them last week in this post and this week I'll share some others.

A UFO challenge was presented at our Quilters Anonymous meeting last week.  We are a chapter of the Arizona Quilter's Guild.   The challenge was inspired by the All People Quilt 2016 UFO Challenge.  We are following their guidelines, however, we're starting ours in February.

Basically, we choose 12 UFOS we want to finish this year and put them on a list numbered 1-12. At our guild meeting, which is the 1st Thursday of the month, a number will be randomly chosen. That number will represent the numbered project we have to work on for that month. We'll share our finishes/progress at the next meeting and get a new # for the following month...and so on and so forth. The goal is to have 12 finished projects by the end of the year, or in our case, by the end of January 2017.

Since I don't have 12 UFOs, I chose several projects from my "To Make Someday" list that I'd like to see finished this year. Most of them are smaller projects since I will also be working on commissions. Here is a list of the projects I chose w/their "before challenge" status.  Remember, the numbers will be drawn randomly, so it doesn't matter how the projects are listed.  I've included pics so that you can see what the projects are. Most of these pics are not mine.

#1 Christmas Sparkle Punch Quilt - planning stage

#2 Through Thick & Thin Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt - all blocks finished

#3 Paper pieced Rooster Block - planning stage

#4 Scarppy String Thing Bed Runner - flimsy

#5 Paper pieced Owl Block - planning stage

#6 Halloween Spiderweb Quilt - planning stage

#7 Mia's Wall Hanging - flimsy, backing pieced and binding cut

#8 Friend Traveler Quilt

 - 

256 lozenges already cut out by my good friend Greta =)

#9 Quilted Cook & Carry - planning

#10 Caddy Pad Jr. Tote - planning

#11 The Desk Deli Tote - planning

#12 Cabo Bucket Tote - planning

Thanks for visiting and linking up!

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Spread the Love

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Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. - 2 Cor 13:11

WHOOMP There IT Is! #8

Thank you all for your kind comments regarding my uncle's passing.  My cousin loves the quilt I made for her.  I finished it at about 1145a Saturday and left my house at 1230p.  It was my fastest binding job ever. I love machine binding!

I've got a few WHOOMPS to share this week.

I finished the quilt top for the custom order that I got through my Etsy shop a few weeks ago, which is for a throw size (60" x 75") of the Hillside Houses Quilt. I finally cut into my new roll of batting.  It is already basted and I will start quilting it this Sunday.  I'm hoping to have it completely finished and ready to ship next Thursday. A pic is coming soon.

This week I sold another quilt listed in my Etsy shop.  The wall hanging I made during the Hillside Houses QAL.  I call it Evening Hillside Houses.

I had to add a sleeve to it, which is something I hadn't done before but I got 'er done.  I used this handy dandy tutorial and watched this video.  I shipped it yesterday.

I recently listed a few patterns in my Craftsy Pattern Store and am extremely pleased w/the number of sales I've had so far.

I finished the Christmas gift paper piecing project! Well...it's not finished finished but the 20" square top is finished and I must say, it's pretty darn amazing!  Now I just have to figure out how to quilt it.  I'm also thinking about entering it in the Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show in March.

And lastly, I made a mug rug this week using this Tea Cup Pattern.  I liked it much better as a flimsy.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons in quilting it.
1. I should use a walking foot for straight line quilting, no matter how small the project.
2. Binding projects this small is for the birds and I will not do it again.

Now I'd like to see what you did this week. Link up and share below. =)

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Thank the Host

Everyone likes to hear "thank you" and know their effort is appreciated.

Spread the Love

The more love you give, the more you get. Pick a number (mine is 5) and commit to visiting and commenting on that many link-ups. Let them know where you're visiting from and ask them to visit you. (This works well for me!)

Direct Link

Use a direct link to a specific post, not your main blog.

Link Back

In your blog post, include a link back to my post/blog and/or grab the WHOOMP There IT Is! button above and put in your post or sidebar. Thanks for spreading the love.

Follow Me ;)

Of course I would love for all you linky-uppers to be followers, but it's NOT required.

Party Hearty! 

An InLinkz Link-up

A Thread for Life