Book It for February

I'm really enjoying Sharon's challenge over at Vroomans Quilts, "Book It" is all about picking a book, magazine or pattern that's been hanging around gathering dust (at least that's my interpretation). I've been able to get rid of two magazines out of the stack, blow off the dust, make the quilt, donate the magazine. 

I've made a very similar quilt before, but in bright pretty colors. I've been trying to make some "boy" quilts lately.

Both of my Book It quilts have also used fabric that I've had way too long, so it's working for me, cleaning out and moving on.

Of course, I've misplaced the pictures I took of the magazine and I've already donated it, yes my middle name is Organized, LOL

This is a wonderfully easy challenge, I think we all have books, magazines and patterns that we want to make "someday". Thanks to Sharon for coming up with such a great idea, it's finally "someday"

Later gators,

Dana 

Cabin Fever?

There's a fun linky party going on over at Lily Pad Quilting, how do you deal with your cabin fever? When I read about it I thought "well I'm out, no cabin fever here", but if you define cabin fever as a strong desire to get outside, well.... yep, I've got that because our weather has been gorgeous! 

I start each day with a 3-4 mile walk with a friend and we visit with these neighbors

Early in the morning the Ibis are sitting on the electric wires, we make sure we don't walk under them :)

Yesterday a whole flock of parrots flew over us, beautiful!

We're still avoiding the street with the alligators, although we haven't seen any lately.

If I'm not walking this is my favorite way to get out.

Once I'm home the terrible twins want a lot of attention, you know how dramatic dogs can be "we thought you were gone forever". So we all go out back to play.

Maya, in full wolf mode, trying to catch a lizard. She hasn't managed to catch one yet, but she has fallen off the deck and gotten her head stuck in the arm of a chair, no pictures since I'm a good mom, laughing the whole time I'm rescuing her.

My mellow Brady Bug just enjoying the sun and company.

Once they're tired out, I do some gardening, the yard always needs work and the flowers think it's spring.

There's always a lot of visitors to the Keys, I've been lucky to see both of these.

This is an old picture, it's illegal to give water or food to the manatees now :(

We see Spoonbills every February.

We don't have a boat at the moment, but we did go out for a sunset ride with friends and a whole pod of these guys stopped by to check us out.

As you can see, I lead a pretty "wild life". Cabin fever? maybe not the way some people are experiencing it, but remember, there's blue skies ahead.

P.S. This is what you get if you stick a coconut in the ground.

Later gators,

Dana

Faux Braid??

I've had a week without company so we're getting back to what passes for routine around here.

Two weeks ago a friend and I started walking 3-4 miles every morning, we have our choice of three different neighborhoods and walk every street, except the street with the alligators, 

since we're walking and not running we avoid that one :)

With plenty of time to play I wanted to try a Faux Braid. The first time I saw one, it was on Sharon's Vrooman's Quilts blog, done up in Lilly & Will fabric, so beautiful. 

Then Debbie of Stitchin' Therapy ran with the idea using her beloved florals and I knew I had to do one in blues and greens. 

Following directions isn't my strength so I played a little and came up with this block.

Put a bunch together and look what you get

I really like quilts that look woven so I ran with it. I'll still do the Faux Braid, but I'm fascinated with how different this turned out by just moving fabric a little.

More company coming on Tuesday so I'm thrilled to have something done. 

Later gators,

Dana

Red and White Quilt Challenge Design It!

When SewCalGal announced the Red and White Quilt Design Challenge it really got me thinking, I've never made one and honestly never thought I would, I'm much more of a use every color and see if I can make you put your shades on quilter.

But, I love a challenge, I love EQ7 and I had just gotten Block Base for Christmas (that means I bought it, wrapped it and handed it to my husband).

Here's just a few quilts that I came up with.

 I used two blocks with this one and set them on point. I think it would be wonderful in batiks
The quilt finishes at 63 inches square and uses 2 yards of white with 5 1/2 yards of various reds.

Next was this one

This one only used one block, but I used two reds, one just a little lighter and subtler, trying to get a fade in and out look. If I changed the red too much it lost the effect.

This one finishes at 41 inches square and used 1 yard of white and 1 yard of each of the reds.

Since it's February we all know what holiday is looming so I think that influenced the next two quilts.

X's and O's

The X's and O's was meant as a baby quilt so it finishes at 38 inches by 38 inches. It needs 2 yards of white and 2 yards of various reds.

and a traditional log cabin heart. 

Finished size for this one is 56 inches by 65 inches and uses 2 1/2 inches white and 4 yards of various reds.

Log cabin will always be my favorite block, so while I was playing with them I made this

Can you see an elephant?  At this point I knew it was time to stop, LOL. 
I can't leave out his stats, he's 65 inches by 65 inches (what a great cuddle quilt he'll be) and uses 3 yards white and 4 yards of various reds. He's made with 9 inch blocks so I may go back and fiddle a bit to see how he would do as a wall hanging. You can never have too many elephant wall hangings, right? 

I do think I'm going to make at least a couple of these quilts, probably not the elephant, if I do he'll be purple. 

This has been great fun and I want to thank SewCalGal for putting together the challenge and starting the thought process for me. The design challenge will be open until March 23rd, plenty of time to dream in red and white. You don't need to use software for the design, anything will do, even colored pencils and graph paper, so think about joining in and challenging yourself.

Thanks for stopping by.

Later gators,

Dana

New FO for January

Thank goodness it's time again for the New FO that Barbara of Cat Patches put together, it seems to the only thing that makes me grab the time to post. 

We've had some cold weather here, I'm not going to mention numbers since I don't want you throwing snowballs at me, but for here, it's been chilly. We've had a pretty constant stream of company that says differently, poor frozen northerners in search of the sun and more due later today. 

I've been sewing every chance I get, just to hold on to my sanity.

I made this one to play with lights and darks, I love the way they pop and recede, Debbie at Stitchin Therapy taught me a lot about color values, if you haven't read her blog, do yourself a favor and take a long look around, her watercolor quilts are stunning.

I made this one fast, I'm quilting between visits, and didn't realize the triangles on the right are facing the wrong direction until I took the pictures, oh well, I love the colors. 

Sharon at Vroomans Quilts came up with a genius idea, pick a book or magazine and make a quilt from it, I actually use my books, but I have way to many magazines hanging around because of one quilt I want to try. I think it's a good way to try new techniques, but too often I just don't understand what they're talking about and end up going off and doing my own thing. This time I'm going to follow directions, maybe :)

I chose this magazine 

and this quilt, I know it was the colors that drew me, but the zigzags were made from giant flying geese and that was interesting for me, I've made my share of zigzags but never this way.

I made it bigger for a baby quilt and was happy to use a bunch of that flower fabric that has been hanging around here too long. The flying geese were made using the four at a time method so I had leftovers which I used in the back. I do wish I had used a thin line of white or yellow between the zigzags, the colors look a little too dense to me, but it's bright and I'm happy with it. 

I'm between quilts right now, but I've been playing with EQ. SewCalGal has a Red and White Quilt Challenge starting soon and I've never made one, I do like to use every crayon in my box, but those Red and Whites are pretty, so we'll see. 

I'm leaving you with lots to check out and do, while I go vacuum dog hair and get ready for the next snow people from the frozen north. 

Later Gators,

Dana