Free Motion Quilting Challenge for Oct.

This months Free-Motion Quilting Challenge over at SewCalGal's is with Teri Lucas, this was a fun if slightly intimidating month. I did mine on cotton, silk sounds beautiful for this but if I had silk I'd be wearing it. Starting out with our names then decorating the entire block around it sounded like fun. 

I love the shell shapes, so fun and even the first attempt looked "not bad". As usual I tried to copy the beautiful example Teri gave us, I need to let myself process all of this, then I can play more and make it my own. I've found that I do that with every month's example, then slowly I see it showing up in my quilting. I did change my thread colors, but they weren't dramatic enough to really show up. 

It did make me wish I had a more exotic and longer name like Carressa or Celestine and I did call my mother to complain, she said to blame my father (Dan) and he wouldn't come to the phone. 

C'est la vie

Later gators,

Dana Carressa Celestine

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time again for one of the best quilt shows ever, so much inspiration and so many beautiful quilts. A huge "thank you" goes out to Amy for all of her hard work putting this together.

It's always difficult to pick a quilt for this show, but thinking about the story behind a quilt helped me pick this one. 

When I first started on this journey I saw a quilt made of triangles, I had no idea what I was doing and certainly didn't know anything about HST's. 

I cut hundreds of tiny triangles and attempted to sew them together, they were about 1 inch finished size, frustrating and they looked really bad. But, thank goodness for the blogging world, I found a tutorial on HST's and was amazed how easy they are.

After making the requisite pinwheel, this quilt was born. I was and am so proud of it, I loved the dimension and the colors that came from just grabbing scraps, this was my first scrappy quilt too. 

This was one of the first quilts to make me feel like a "real" quilter and it felt pretty good.

Measurements: 36.5" X 36.5"
Quilted By: Me
Best Category: Scrap Quilt, Wall Hanging

Thanks for coming by, I know you have hundreds of other quilts to see, and so do I. 

Later gators,

Dana

Foto Finish Orange

The optional theme for Foto Finish at Cat Patches today is Orange. 

This beauty was sitting in a little beam of sunlight which lit the picture perfectly. Really lucky shot.

We're off to the mainland today to have a little fun, David's birthday is coming, so this is short and sweet.

Now fly on over to Cat Patches to see the other orange pictures.

Later gators,

Dana

One Block Done

To keep myself honest with these dog blocks, I promised myself I would post about them, if you don't see one for a while I expect someone to speak up. 

Here's the finished block

I think it's cute and I did learn a lot already, once I got past my fears, it's not so hard. Did you know that invisible thread really is invisible? especially when you're hand sewing with it? That's out, I'm getting a bunch of thread to match, I figured out what I'm going to ignore in the directions :), I wish I had used two browns for the big dog so his head wouldn't get lost in his body and I need to find a better paint for the eyes. When I ironed the block the white mostly came off (this is a before ironing picture). Any suggestions would be appreciated. And if you have ideas for quilting when I'm done, I'd love to hear them, please. 

I'm way behind in reading blogs and at this point I'm just cruising through and waiting for a picture to grab my attention (yes, I am very much: ohhhh shiny). This morning I read Barbara's stash report which I personally love. The numbers seem so big to me and I can't even imagine keeping those kind of records. I have a huge stash, (don't ask, I won't tell) and I've been pretty much trying to work it down. Last time I was at Joann's talking to a woman in line at the cutting table, I said I was working off of my stash and she said, nose very much in the air "working from stash makes everything look the same". Uh-oh. So I shopped on line.

There's one more big one coming. In my defense I don't want everything looking the same like the lady b*t*h said.  And if I was doing a stash report I wouldn't have to report these because they're just tiny little fat quarters, right? 

Later gators,

Dana

Foto Finish - Leaves

The optional theme for Foto Finish at Cat Patches is Leaves. While I expect to see some beautiful pictures of leaves changing with the season, we don't have any of that here.  But before you feel too sorry for me, it's 77 degrees the sun is shining and it's breezy. Just beautiful even without changing leaves. So here's mine

That's a rubber tree in my backyard, yes they do grow in other places than a Doctor's office. I just love the variegated leaves which start out in that pink shade and turn to a beautiful creme. 

I hope you'll leave here (sorry I couldn't resist) and head on over to Cat Patches to enjoy the pictures and maybe even join in. 

Later gators,

Dana

100 Quilts for Kids

Last year 100 Quilts for Kids encouraged us to find a local charity to donate our quilts to, someone mentioned a Women's Shelter and I had my charity. The response I received from them was so awesome they will always be my charity of choice for children's quilts. 

I washed and packed up 10 quilts and delivered them yesterday.

The link closes on Oct. 15, so there is a little time if you want to join and donate a quilt. It feels good and makes everyone happy. Funny thing, I wanted to finish just one more quilt and could have sworn I had a dozen to take. This morning I found the other two waiting for me to take pictures of them, so there will be another delivery soon. :)

Later gators,

Dana

My Adventures in Applique

Before I show you the hardest sewing I've ever done I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORI

my beautiful, smart and oh so wonderful daughter turns 27 today, David and I went up to Ft. Lauderdale yesterday with a Little Mermaid cake and spent the day with her, we took her shopping then out to lunch and just had a really special day. I still wonder how she looks like this:

but should still look like this:

Happy Birthday Baby, I love you!

Now, on to my adventures. Last year I won Muchas Poochas by Karen Brow in the Pets On Quilts Show, the first time I saw this pattern I thought it was the best pattern I had ever seen, just so adorable the way the dogs climb out of their blocks. 

I looked at the directions and pretty much ran for my life and sanity. It was way beyond me. But a little bit ago a friend asked me how it was going on the quilt and I pulled it back out. I had mentioned to her that I didn't do brown or neutrals and needed to get some. A few days later this came in the mail

There's more, but I've already been sorting. That was the last of my excuses, so here we go.

I made the backgrounds  thin borders and sashing, the sashing goes on as you get ready to applique so only the one I'm working on has them.

I really need to thank Cheryl form Teapots2Quilting, she has been sending me tips, advice and encouragement, which I have actually listened to and the tips have really helped. Thanks Cheryl! 

I wish she could have been here to say "stop, Dana stop, you're doing it backwards", yes of course I cut the freezer paper and fabric backwards. By now I should know to just do the opposite of what I'm sure is right :).

Anyway, here's today's results

The paper is still in there so they are just laid on the block, but I'm pretty pleased. I picked this one for first because it looked the least complicated and because it looked a little like another birthday child of mine.

Yep, Happy Birthday to Brady Bug too, no Mermaid cake for him, but I made dog cookies from scratch. 

Later gators,

Dana

Foto Finish Cold

Cold is the theme of the day for Foto Finish over at Cat Patches. 

I'd love to tell you this is a quaint European village, but it's Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. Love those chimneys! The temperature is about 100 degrees and looking at the snow on the rooftops didn't cool us down at all. It's pretty though.

Cori and I would take a summer vacation every year, just the two of us, we're the type of traveler who sees a sign "World's Biggest" or anything along those lines, look at each other, "oh shiny" and off we'd go. I'm sure we've seen every 13 foot alligator in the state (they're are all from the same mold, yes they are all plastic unless you're in the Everglades). Lots of laughter, fun and interesting people along the way. 

This trip was our last so far since she's back in school. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a few more.

Go on over to Cat Patches to join in or look at all of the wonderful "cold" pictures. I almost took a picture of the inside of my freezer. 

Later gator,

Dana

September!? New FOs

How can we be having the NewFo linky party at Cat Patches for September so soon? I can tell you lots of things I did in August and even for October I've gotten a lot done. September...uh...I can't think of anything that actually happened. I know I sewed because I have quilts, but I think there may have been something cosmically strange about Sept. So I'm just going to put up pictures and assume I made them sometime in Sept. or maybe August, definitely not Oct. 

First I made some "no think" quilts, you know, just cut and sew, you don't really need to think about much.

These two were all about the fabric and colors

Too big, I physically hurt after finishing this one, lots of wrestling. 

I've been playing with applique, I haven't done much before now, but I want to learn so I did some practicing.

Silly, but fun

I love the Delilah fabric, it seemed perfect for these hearts.

My first attempt at freezer paper. I like the way it works, but I burned the heck out of my fingers. I guess we suffer for our art.

That's it, I finished everything (I feel like such a loser). Maybe I'll have unfinished stuff in Oct.

Snoodles over at Lily Pad Quilting named Barbara the "Enabler-in-Chief" and I have to agree, plus I think she wears that crown proudly. I hope you'll go over the Cat Patches and check out the other FO links, remember you don't need to finish anything, just start something and you're ready to link up and join the party.

Later gator,

Dana