A Quilted Passion Birthday Giveaway!

Hi All! I'm so excited!  Today A Quilted Passion is 2 yrs old! Who would've guessed I'd still be blogging 2 years later? Definitely not me! But I am, and it's all because of you...my wonderful readers/followers and fellow quilters/bloggers! Thank you!  

As we all know, when there's a birthday, gifts are sure to follow.  So to celebrate my blog turning 2 yrs old...and hopefully attract a few more followers, I'm doing a giveaway!  

When I was deciding what to give away, my eldest son suggested a purse.  I recently made a couple of purses which he thought were super cool. So that's what I did! I made a purse for the give away! Thanks Justin! For the idea and for helping w/the fabric choices!

And here it is.  A 2-Way Purse made by yours truly(me)!

The purse does come w/a  few other goodies too!  A 3" Drunkard's Path Pattern and Template, a Spinning Hexagon pattern and template, 3 spools of Connecting Threads Essential Cotton Thread(my fave!) in Fuchsia, Jade and Lemon, AND a 5 pk of Schmetz Universal needles!

For your chance to win this awesome 2-Way Purse and goodies, follow me via Google Friend Connect ("My Peeps"), Bloglovin' or Instagram (all are in the sidebar to the right, underneath my pic --> --> -->) and leave a comment on this post telling me how you are following.  If you are already a follower, leave a comment on this post telling me how you follow and the name of your favorite purse/bag pattern or tutorial. That's it!

The lucky winner will be randomly chosen using True Random Number Generator on Friday September 4, 2015 @ 9p AZ-MST and announced in a blog post on Saturday, September 5, 2015.  Thank you all for your encouragement and support!

A Thread for Life

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Cor 4:7-9

Linking up at: 

Sunday Stash

Main Crush Monday

Monday Funday

Fabric Tuesday

Sew Cute Tuesday

Let's Bee Social

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

Steady Progress Continues

Steady progress is being made on my  Christmas Countdown.

Spinning Stars is basted and awaiting quilting.

 The backing is red w/white polka dots.

Diamonds and Purples has been flipped, turned or birthed, however you want to refer to a quilt w/o binding, and is awaiting top-stitching around perimeter and quilting.

The backing is pieced w/assorted purples.

 I've also got several of the small quilted gifts for friends and family finished. I will post pics of these after Christmas,  

I hope you are making progress on your projects too. 

Until next time, happy quilting.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Thread for Life
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. - 1Cor 1:25

Linking up at:
Let's Bee Social
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop!

Moving Right Along

The Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2014 has come to an end. A big shout out to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for coordinating the event.  Even though I didn't win this time around, I'm still super excited and very grateful that my quilt made it to Viewer's Choice Top 20!  A HUGE thank you for all who voted for my quilt. You can see the winners here.

Here are a few of my faves from the festival.

http://www.13spools.com/2014/10/bloggers-quilt-festival-icy-waters.html

http://quiltsmyway.blogspot.ca/2014/10/light-of-stars-quilt-bloggers-quilt.html

  

http://pugmomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/10/entering-bloggers-quilt-festival.html

If you missed the Blogger's Quilt Festival this time, don't despair, it happens twice a year! It'll be coming around again in Spring 2015, and I hope to see you there. 

In other quilty news...

I'm back to my countdown projects. I've been working on the double option star quilt which will be a Christmas present for my 3yr old sister. (my dad has a kid w/his girlfriend) 

Her favorite color is green so I chose this green from my stash BUT, it's very masculine.

What could I put w/it to make it more appropriate for a  3yr old girl?  Her mom said she also likes blue and red. So I went back in my stash and chose this beautiful blue paisley which has red (and the same green) in it. 

This fabric opened the door for yellow and a few other fabrics...which worked out well because I quickly ran out of the green. 

The blocks measure 8.5" square and originally I was going to make 42 of them for 6 across, 7 down. They are pretty busy though, so I decided to tone it down a bit by adding white sashing strips.

Here's what I've got so far. Because of the sashing I didn't need as many blocks after-all and settled on 24.  Four of these blocks (bottom row) are super scrappy because I used what was left-over from making the other sets. 

On Design Wall

 I'm calling it Spinning Stars. I've yet to add a white border and a 2nd border of the blue paisley.

Outside

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, Happy Quilting!

A Thread for Life

If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

"One way to have more faith is to ask for it! If you're like me, sometimes we don't need more of anything. We just need the courage to exercise what we already have.  Other times we authentically require an increase to do God's will, and He will not refuse it if we ask in Jesus' name.

Jesus will never turn us away when we come to Him with gut-level honesty and request what we lack. Since it is impossible to please God without faith, you and I constantly have new challenges to believe God.  Let's learn to confess our unbelief and ask Christ to empower us to overcome it." 

Beth Moore's Believing God: Day by Day

Linking up at:
Scraptastic Tuesday at She Can Quilt
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Flower Burst Wonder

When I first read about the Blogger's Quilt Festival in this post , I knew exactly which quilt I'd enter!  It's a One Block Wonder I started over a year ago.  Today I named it Flower Burst Wonder.  It measures 64" x 75".

One Block Wonder is a technique from Maxine Rosenthal's book titled One Block Wonders.  Personally I think the book should've been titled One Bolt Wonders, because you use lots of one fabric to make these amazing quilts!  I used "koto" by Alexander Henry.



This is the second One Block Wonder I've made.  Originally it was to be a quilt for my king size bed, but after adding wide borders, I hated it!  At that point I decided it wasn't going to be a quilt for my bed after all and put it in a closest where it sat for many moons.

I finally figured out what to do w/it a couple of months ago.  It would become a large lap quilt and gift for my mom's b-day November 3. I had to make it a lot smaller, so after removing the wide borders, I removed several rows of hexies to shorten the center.  Then I added narrower borders and FINALLY I started liking it again!

I'd always wanted to quilt it w/orange colored thread and that's what I did. I wanted a softer, comfier quilt and didn't want the orange thread to be overpowering, so I did minimal quilting; lazy, wavy lines in the center and a meander in the outer border.  You can see it better from the back view.

The 3 in" binding was made from the rows I removed when shortening the quilt top.

I'm extremely pleased w/how it turned out and I hope you are too! If you can figure out how to vote (it's kind of a painful process), please vote HERE  (I hope the link works) for Flower Burst Wonder as Viewer's Choice now thru Oct 31st AND for Favorite in the Large Quilt Category on Nov 1st.  I thank you in advance! The process that was kind of painful, was the nominating part.

Thank you Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side for organizing such a delightful event.  This is my first time and I'm entering Flower Burst Wonder in The Large Quilt Category.   I'm super excited to be a part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival this fall!

A Thread for Life

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Rom 12:12

Linking up at:
Anything Goes Mondays
Linky Tuesday at Free Motion by the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle and Thread Thursdays at My Quilt Infatuation
Free Motion Mavericks
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

More Finishes and a New Addition to the Family

I finished the college bound, scrappy strip twist quilt for my niece. I'm extremely pleased w/how it turned out!  She is going to love it!

I practiced FMQ -  meandering in the pink borders. It's not the prettiest job, but the important things are:  I'm practicing, thus getting better AND I used a light colored thread so you can't see how not-so-curvy it really is. ;)






I've been experimenting more w/taking pics of my quilts. This one was too long to hang where I usually do to get a full frontal. I realize pics don't have to be full frontal but whenever I just "lay" the quilt over the end of the sofa or a wall, it looks stupid.  Anyone have any pointers?

I also finished this little charity quilt. At the last QA meeting, someone brought in a bunch of individual 10" squares already quilted.  I grabbed a handful and this is what they became.






I came across this handy dandy post by +bellezza squillace on how to fold and store quilts. I've tried this several times. Mine still aren't as neat looking as the originators pic seen here, but they will no longer have hard creases down and across the middle! =)

Remember the puppy I wrote about in this post? I named her Ivy. I brought her home last night. I got her from my dear friend +Pam Hammond. If anyone is interested in a Blue Heeler aka Australian Cattle Dog, she has 4 pups for sale; 2 females, 2 males.  I'm hoping Ivy and Inka (our cat), will be fast friends soon.

3 wks

Look how much Ivy has changed in 5 weeks. They are born white and quickly develop their colors/spots like Dalmatians (because they were cross bred with Dalmatians way back when). She has beautiful markings w/ a single mask and was the only pup in the litter w/brown ears.

7 1/2 wks

I'm still hanging w/Bikram Yoga. I just completed my 4th week. Only 8 more to go. I have to adjust my schedule to 2 classes a week starting Monday because I drop my grandson off at school. I may have to adjust it even more to accommodate Ivy. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, I almost forgot, my blog's 1st birthday is this month and I want to do a give away. Any tips/pointers you can give for a successful giveaway will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, Happy Quilting!

A Thread for Life
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Heb 3:13 NASB

Patterns, Books and Progress, Oh My!

When I first started quilting and discovered FaveQuilts, I was so thankful for all the FREE quilt patterns. (It's where I found some of the blogs I follow too!)


 I was super excited that I would never have to pay for a pattern or book! Well that lasted for a long while, but in the past year I've purchased a few patterns and more recently, a couple of books! I pre-ordered this modern quilt as you go book a few months ago and I can't wait for it to be distributed next month. And even more recently, after falling in love w/ a beautiful kaleidoscope quilt seen on Fresh Off The Frame, I ordered Ricky Tims' book, Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts.







And speaking of books, I recently inherited a great deal of books from the AQG who closed their library earlier this year. Members were allowed to choose pretty much any books we wanted. Here are the ones I chose.

my son cut off my head

In Quilty news, I did get the college-bound quilt basted last weekend and have even started quilting it. I'm using the techniques that Ann Petersen teaches in her Craftsy class: Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine.

Here's what I have so far on the Summer Star Mini.

Tomorrow I'm bringing my sister to quilting, the once a month get together w/the sisters from church,and I'm going to assist her in making a simple lap quilt. Maybe she'll become a quilting maniac like me. ;)

In Yoga news, 2 weeks down, 10 more to go! Keep praying for me.

A Thread for Life
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 NIV

Until next time, Happy Quilting and God Bless.

Still Learning, a Quick Finish and Freebies!

There are a couple of things from this week that I'm excited about.

First, I learned how to tie a Quilters Knot! The gal who taught it to the kids at sew camp this week was surprised that I didn't already know how; and honestly, I was a little embarrassed. But there was one other mature quilter who also didn't know...so I didn't feel so bad after all. ;)  This is something I could have learned from YouTube, but I wasn't interested before that day because I'd been using a knotting technique I learned from +Quilting In The Rain's tutorial.  Before this tutorial, my knots were also "ghetto". I'm thankful to have added another technique to my quilters resume.

And the other thing I'm excited about is also something I discovered at sew camp: Chaco Liners by Clover! These chalk pens and liners work wonderfully for marking quilts w/straight or curvy lines, half square triangles and any other fabric markings. There is no mess and the chalk just washes or brushes away.  They come in several colors and are refillable! I bought yellow and white.

Sew Camp
This is the 3rd year my quilt chapter, Quilters Anonymous,  has held kids sew camp. It's a week long day camp, Mon - Fri. There are 2 sessions, 9a - noon and 1p - 3p.  Last year I volunteered for 1 afternoon. This year, I did 2 full days. Next year, I'm planning on doing the entire week. I really enjoyed it. The kids had the option of making 4 smaller projects or 1 lap quilt.  I brought my youngest son (19) to camp one day and he made a thread catcher/scrap bag and a zippered mesh bag. He was pleased w/his accomplishments and now has a greater appreciation for my craft.

The quilt I just finished was the lap quilt project we taught at camp. It went together so quickly and I whipped it out in no time. I did my first mitered corner on this quilt.

I am slowly but surely getting all the pieces cut out to make the Summer Star Mini Quilt for my sis' work office.   Next on my quilting/sewing agenda is to get the College Bound quilt quilted for my niece.  I've already got the backing pieced. My goal is to have it basted this weekend.

In other news, I bought a 3 mos, Bikram "HOT" Yoga deal on Living Social.  I started it this week. The class time that works best for me and the one I prefer is at 530a, Mon, Weds, Fri.  If you aren't familiar w/Bikram Yoga, it's a 90 min yoga class that is done in a room that is 104 degrees Fahrenheit! I can't believe I paid for such torture. One week down, 11 more to go! Pray for me!!

And for all my Nookers out there in case you don't already know, Barnes and Noble has Free Fridays  on The Nook Blog. They offer a free book, a free app AND a free video every week! A great way to grow your library w/o spending a penny!

A Thread for Life
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -Phil 3:12-14

If Only Food Fasting Were This Easy!

I took a Fabric Fast Challenge that went from Jan 1 - Jun 30. I made it! I did not purchase a single piece of fabric for 6 mos! It wasn't terribly difficult for me because I had the Canada/NY trip to save for. AND in addition to the previous fabric donations I wrote about in May, I was given another HUGE donation!   I have a considerable stash now and I'm honestly considering going another 6 mos - 1 year w/o buying fabric!  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I'd been wanting to make the Strip Twist Quilt for quite some time. I decided to make it for my niece who is going off to college this fall.  I LUV how it turned out! I even added a flange!  I thought I'd finished the top last weekend (66.5in x 81.5in) but then she told me that her bed is an extra long twin. Good thing I hadn't started quilting it yet. I'm adding another 5 inch border to the top and bottom (in the same pink).

 I also finished the mystery quilt top I was doing w/my chapter - Quilters Anonymous QA.

I made this cute little pin cushion/scrap bag combo a couple of weeks ago. I used this tutorial, but filled it w/crushed walnut shells.

I also made this caddy for my cutting mat (18 x 24). I actually started a tutorial for it but  didn't take all the pics I needed, so I'll have to make another one before I can post the tutorial.

Here are a couple of the smaller projects we're doing at kids sewing camp this year. A pin cushion and scrap bag. Camp is July 7-11. Last year I volunteered for 1 afternoon, this year I'm doing 2 full days! I'm so excited!

I'm now debating on whether to start a new quilt OR start quilting the 4 tops I have completed. Decisions, decisions!!

On another note, about a year & half ago, a friend brought one of her dogs to church.  A Blue Heeler aka Australian cattle dog.  I really liked the look of the dog. She told me they are very intelligent and loyal dogs. I said I might be interested it getting one in the future. Well...her dog just had 7 pups and I'm seriously considering getting one. I've even picked one out! I'm thinking of names for her and am considering giving her a name from a character in the The Outlander Series, but maybe not.

And lastly, as if I don't already have enough to do, I've added yard work to the list. I haven't really done much w/the backyard since I bought the house a couple of years ago and so I've been doing improvements little by little over the last couple of weeks. My "grass" was just weeds really.  I've been getting up early in the morning, having my quite time on the back patio and then I spend about a half hour working in the yard before work. By spring it should be really nice.

I definitely need to blog more often...so my posts aren't so darn long! On my honor, I will try...to do weekly posts at the very least.

Until next week, Happy Quilting!

A Thread for Life
But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day. 2 Tim 1:12 HCSB