FMQ Challenge for May

The May challenge was from Leah Day who I've been fascinated with for a long time. Her Free Motion Quilting Project is a wonderful source of inspiration and better yet, ideas if you're not sure what pattern you want to master next. I've watched a ton of her videos so this month felt like I was visiting with an old friend.Her design for this month was easy and well explained

The only problem I had was when I started and forgot that I was supposed to be filling all of the space. You can see that in the top corner, I was concentrating on the stitching and not thinking about the space.
The second half was the train track which I think I will actually use for a little boy's quilt as a train track, I'll add a second rail, I think it will be darling. 
I've listened and read a lot of Leah's tips which are included in the first video, but one idea I loved was to have a stack of small quilt sandwiches ready to go so you can practice everyday. Genius! With the Free Motion Project you'll never run out of practice ideas. 
I really want to thank Leah for taking the time to make the videos and to help us all out and as usual Thank You to SewCalGal for this wonderful idea and putting the work into so we can all learn.
Thanks for stopping by,Dana

Foto Finish - Gardening

Saturday means Foto Finish at Cat Patches,  poor Barbara has to go on vacation to Ireland, so this will be the last until July. Today's optional theme is Gardening, so I'm going to share one of my favorite plants. My daughter and I planted the top of a pineapple when she was about 4 years old and this is what we grew

Every year it gives us a small pineapple then the plant dies and puts out a baby plant on the side, the plant seems to walk all around the original spot, it's about 2 feet away now. It's a fun plant and of course I love it because we planted it together.

I hope you'll hop on over to Cat Patches, I'm sure the other pictures will be wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I think we all love the Blogger's Quilt Festival, so much beauty, talent and inspiration all in one place. I do want to thank Amy for all of the work she puts into this, Amy you're amazing.

This is my current favorite quilt. About every third quilt I try to follow directions and make a quilt block, it's my attempt at learning. 

I hand dyed the aqua sashing since once I had that color in my head nothing else would do and of course I didn't have any in my stash.

I kept trying to figure out an individual design to quilt on the separate flowers, but nothing seemed right and the quilt wasn't talking to me. Finally it decided to shout. I quilted different size spirals all over and it turned out to be perfect. I love the look and the texture is amazing.

I hope you're enjoying the festival, I'm off to enjoy it myself,

Thanks for coming by,

Dana

Happy Mother's Day

We held up traffic yesterday to let what David called "Ducky Daycare" cross the street. It seems like the perfect Mother's Day picture.

To all the women out there, I think Mother's Day is about nurturing and we've all done it, human babies, fur babies and just kindness to others.

Happy Mother's Day.

Dana

No Reply Comments

I've been asked how to not be a "no reply" commentor, so I'm going to go through the steps. I'm a visual learner, so there are lots of pictures.

Edit: if you are are on Goggle + here's a few places that address that problem:
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2012/10/to-all-google-plus-usershow-to-change.html#more
http://jenniffier.blogspot.com/2012/08/google-profile.html
http://mrslambsclass.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-im-no-reply-blogger-google-fix.html

This is all for blogger, since that's what I know.

First of all you need to have a blogger account,  from the research I've done, it looks like, if you don't have some kind of account, WordPress, Blogger, etc. then you will need to leave your email in your comment. Make it easy on yourself and set up an account, it's easy and fast.You don't have to have a blog, just an account and who knows you may want to blog someday. Go here to set one up:

Blogger Setup

Now here are the steps to make sure your email is used for comments. No one sees them except the person you are commenting to, so it's safe.

The white on white may be hard to see, but just look for the red arrows I put in.

Go to the blogger dashboard:

At the very top you'll see this, of course it will be your name, if it's my name I've given you way too much info  :)

See the little down arrow next to your name, click it

You'll see this:

 Click on Blogger Profile and this will come up.

Click on Edit Profile

Make sure the "show my email address" box is checked and make sure your email is listed.

Then go all the way to bottom of the page and click "save profile"

That's it, you're done. Remember no one sees your email, when you leave a comment it's just like you sent an email, your comments show up in my email and I answer you by just hitting reply. It's easy for all of us. 

Want to test it out? Leave me a comment and I'll answer you. (If it worked.... insert evil laugh here)

Good luck,

Dana

Foto Finish - Stripes

The theme for Foto Finish at Cat Patches this week is Stripes.

Easy Peasy, I went with the ultimate striped animal. These guys always amaze me, they look like something Dr. Suess would have dreamed up. 

I hope you'll visit Cat Patches and join in the fun and while you're there tell George "Welcome Home" he's been under the weather and in the kitty hospital.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana

Foto Finish - Red

Today's optional theme for Foto Finish over at Cat Patches is Red. 

Here's my contribution. Nature always knows the best color combinations.

Today is Barbara's (Cat Patches) birthday, she wrote her age out in Spanish and Irish and since I don't speak either, I think she said she's 28 or maybe 38 :), since she and I are almost the same age, I'm going with the 28, O.K. with you Barbara?

After you've checked out the beautiful red pictures, I hope you'll go to her birthday post and wish her happiness, there's a lovely present for a follower. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana

My New Header

How do you like my new header? I love it, so bright and happy. SewCalGal contacted me and asked if I would like a new one and of course I jumped at the chance. She may have regretted the offer when I flooded her with pictures, should it be quilts? photos? flowers? all of them? and I didn't even get started on the terrible twins (dogs). 

I think everyone knows SewCalGal, if you don't, you really need to check out her blog, she's easily one of the nicest and most informative in the blogging world. 

My new header is an example she used for her Fun Friday Giveaway, for a chance to win the My Memories Software, which she used to create the headers. You have until next Friday, May 11th to enter and even if you don't win, she has a $10 off coupon on her blog. 

Did I say she's nice? I now have headers for all of the things I like to blog about. I'm going to switch them out as my mood changes. Fun! Thank you so much SewCalGal. 

Dana

Let The Sunshine In - 52 Photos Project

I've decided to join in on the 52 Photos Project, I like the rules (none) and of course I love the beautiful photography. 

This weeks prompt is Let The Sunshine In. That one should be easy since the sun is a big part of where I live, but as soon as I read it I knew what picture I wanted to share and there isn't any sun. I don't usually post pictures of my daughter, but this is a favorite of mine.

All dressed up in one of her "princess" dresses, watching the rain. I would love to know what she's contemplating, dreaming about. She was so deep in thought she didn't even know I was there. 

Dana

NewFO Challenge

I haven't joined in with Cat Patches NewFO challenge before, it kind of feels like enabling the enabler, plus I'm lazy busy. But I actually know what I've been doing in the month of April, so I'm going to link up. 

I started and finished this cute little baby quilt. 

A little tidbit comes with this one. I laid the blocks out on my bed which is my design wall. I have a light aqua quilt on my bed and as soon as I saw the blocks with the aqua I knew the sashing had to be that color. Of course I didn't have that color in my stash and I don't have any quilt shops within two hours of me. No problem, I've been a Rit Dye girl for years, they've never let me down. They have the recipes for just about any color you can think of, so I went to Ritdye.com, found the right color and had a couple of yards of the right color in just a couple of hours. I always try to have plenty of white on hand.

  

This is also the quilt I was trying to use for my Free Motion Quilting Challenge, trying to combine the two, but it just wasn't working, nothing looked good. I went with the big spirals and really like the look.

I started this boy quilt, all that's left is the borders which will be the bright green and royal blue. I don't normally work with these primary colors, but I like it a lot. I've been trying to use up scraps, this definitely helped.

So there you have it, I think I've forgotten a few things from the beginning of the month, but oh well. I'll try to keep track for May.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana