Words to Grow By Block of the Month - Grow Stars

Are you ready to do a few pieced blocks for the 

Words to Grow By 

Block of the Month?

I have 2 of my 3 finished.

I know I said the Flower Bed Dream was my last design for the quilt,

but things happen...

The star blocks were going to be released in January 2021, but

due to unforeseen events, we have decided to take a break from the block of the months until next year. 

Just to be clear, we ARE NOT leaving you hanging with an unfinished project! 

We love our followers too much to do that.

From July through the end of August, each designer will release the remaining blocks, including the stars (they are here), and measurements for the border. 

They will be free through September for downloading, so be sure to grab them.

Our team of designers has enjoyed this

Block of the Month

 and

loved showing new blocks each month.

You can find a list of the fabric requirements and more information about the

Block of the Month in this post.

Grow Stars is only free through September

and you can get the free pattern

HERE

 We have loved our time with you and will leave the Facebook page open so you can ask questions and show us your finished blocks and quilts. 

 There are over 3000 friends on the Facebook group.

Come and join us.

Christmas in July Then and Now - Christmas Ornaments Pillow and Giveaway

Welcome
to

the first day of the

Christmas in July Then and Now Blog Hop.

.

I'm happy to kick things off with

 my

Christmas Ornaments Pillow.

Carol of Just Let Me Quilt invited bloggers to show an 

older Christmas project from "back then" 

or

show something new...anything Christmas related.

That was it, just make or show something Christmas.

Thank you, Carol, for inviting me to join this super fun blog hop!

This pillow is my "now" but I've made these blocks before.

It's theThermoweb Holiday Quilt Block Series from 2017

and

this is the table runner I made with the blocks with

O' Christmas Tree by Whistler Studios for Windham Fabrics

.

I teamed with 3 other Thermoweb designers to create ornament inspired 

quilt block patterns. 

 Our hostess, Carol, was part of the design team, too.

The FREE quilt block patterns can be found on the following Thermoweb links:

Carla - Christmas Bell Ornament

Carol - Vintage Christmas Ornament

Amanda - Holiday Retro Ornament

Amy - Joy Ornament

Click HERE to see the way other designers put the blocks together.

But wait, I used these awesome patterns again to make another table runner last year

with different fabrics, I received from my local quilt shop.

With permission from the designers and Thermoweb, I taught a class at my local shop,

Birds of a Feather Quilt Shop.  

It was my first teaching gig and it was too much fun.

I pre-printed all the patterns for the class on 

 HeatnBond EZ Print Lite 

(no tracing)

so the class could start right in with fabric selection and sewing 

to finish the blocks in the class.

Which brings me back to my Ornament Pillow.

For the class, I didn't know how much time I would have to stitch, so I made the blocks 1/2 size so I could still have time to teach. 

 I only managed to finish one block even with the smaller size.

So, thanks to this hop, I finished the blocks and made them into a pillow cover.

Be sure to check out all the Christmas projects over at these blogs today:

July 27

Creatin' in the Sticks

Just Because Quilts

Words & Stitches

Quilt In A Not-Shell

Ms P Designs USA

 Scrapdash

Selina Quilts

Days Filled With Joy

  

Here is the rest of the schedule:

July 28

Life in the Scrapatch

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Karrin’s Crazy World

Vroomans Quilts

Quilted Delights

Songbird Designs

Websterquilt

 Karen's Korner

  

July 29

MooseStashQuilting

Beaquilter

Day Brook Designs

Seams To Be Sew

Little Penguin Quilts

Bumbleberry Stitches

Samelia's Mum

Canyon Rim Quilting

  

July 30

Quiltscapes

Mary Mack Made Mine

DesertSky Quilting

For The Love Of Geese

Quilt Schmilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Quilting Gail

  

July 31

Just Let Me Quilt

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Den Syende Himmel

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Many Yarns

Just Sew Quilter

Shirley C.

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Get all that inspiration to start your holiday stitching now 

so it's done in time for you to enjoy the holidays.

(Every year I say I'm going to start my Christmas stitching early and every year I wait till the last minute.)

At least I have a pillow cover ready...

I want you to have a chance to try 

Thermoweb's HeatnBond EZ Print Lite 

so I'm giving away one package.

I'm covering the postage so this giveaway is limited to U.S. only.  (sorry)

Entries are open until August 2nd

I'll announce the winner by August 4th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello Fall Blog Hop Sign Ups

Yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown.

Apple, pumpkin, spider, hay, acorn, harvest, treats or tricks, football, leaf, gourd, and corn.

If any of these inspire you then you probably have some great ideas for the

Hello Fall Blog Hop.

What is a Blog Hop?

It's like a "show and tell" online.

Our blog hops feature sewing and quilting and are like joining a quilt guild without leaving home.  Once the theme (challenge) is presented we set to work sewing.

We inspire each other with projects, tutorials, or patterns.

Anyone can follow along.

HELLO FALL BLOG HOP

The first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere is

September 22nd.

That seems like the perfect reason to celebrate autumn with a blog hop.

SO

Stitch something up inspired by fall.  It doesn't have to be a quilt, by the way.

Let's celebrate fall with projects.

Anything will do, anything that happens in the fall.  

It's your interpretation of
Hello Fall.

The blog hop rules:  

sorry, there has to be a little organization...

Post your project on your assigned day.

Have a giveaway or don't have a giveaway. It's totally optional!

Visit everyone's blog on the list and leave a sweet comment. Make friends!!!!

Are you in?

Send me an email with the following information:

(PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do this)

Your first name
Your email address
Your blog name

Your blog URL

Subject Line:  Fall

PLEASE, email me the info.

I do know most of you, but if you don't send the info, I have to look up all your information.

If you have emailed me and don't hear from me within a few days, please email me again or contact me on Facebook.  Sometimes Hotmail eats my homework...lol

Blog Hops are for everyone.

If you just want to follow along for the inspiration, that is great.

If you don't have a blog and want to participate, I may have someone that can host you. 

Send me an email.
Remember, this is for fun.
Let's celebrate cooler days, autumn color, and fall treats.

Christmas in July - Sparkling Gold Table Mat

This month the Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

is a little different but such fun.

Island Batik and Accuquilt

teamed with the

Island Batik Ambassadors

to

bring

Christmas in July

to a lot of special someones.

Each Ambassador received a

GO! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set

to create a small project with Island Batik fabrics

and
then gift both the project made and the

Go! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set.

Today, I'm thrilled to share my
Sparkling Gold Table Mat story.

My daughter, Trista, has always enjoyed sewing and has shared her time with me on
several occasions to have mother/daughter sewing days.
Right away, I knew she just had to be my "special someone" to receive the
Go! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set.

She has dabbled with quilting a little, but her time is limited to devote to it.
The Go! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set is perfect for a new quilter.
She can cut with accuracy and speed.
It's ultraportable, so she can bring it for our sewing days.
(that's a win for me too!)

With Trista's Christmas decor in mind,

I chose to use 2 gold fabrics from

the Island Batik Winter 2019 Collection

Season's Splendor by Kathy Engle

and

an Island Batik Foundation Neutral in Egg White.

The Go! Me Fabric Cutter Starter Set

includes two Go!Dies and I chose the

GO! Half Square Triangle-3" Finished Square (55703)

and had the cutting done in minutes.

Each square was stitched with Aurifil 50 wt #2134 and a Schmetz Microtex (Sharp) Chrome 70/10 needle.  If you haven't tried these needles, they are perfect for the tight weave of the Island Batik fabrics.

It was so fast to stitch all the half square triangles together in a chain

which made the pressing super fast and easy too.

Seriously, I've never made accurate half-square triangles so fast.

All that was left was putting my design together.

I did the quilting with my Handi Quilter Avante long arm pro-stitcher

using Glide Trilobal Polyester 40 wt white thread. 

 Hobbs Heirloom Premium Wool batting is in the middle and

the binding is another fabric from the Island Batik Season's Splendor Collection.

Giving is such fun and what a treat to see the other

2020 Island Batik Ambassadors Christmas in July posts. You can find the links HERE.

Surprising Trista made for a fun day and we enjoyed taking photos.
Here is my favorite!

Maybe soon it will be sewing days for 3.

Leave a little sparkle where ever you go...

It's an Island Batik Christmas in July - 2020 Ambassador Second Round Boxes Revealed

As an Island Batik Ambassador for 2020,  I receive products to use for the ambassador challenges.
Check out this stack of boxes!

So cool and it's like Christmas - the anticipation to see what is inside...

Instead of just tearing into the boxes,

one of the tasks as an ambassador is to make an unboxing video.

Not my comfort zone, to say the least, but here it is:

I went for the shortest unboxing video, but this is the longest one I've done yet.  (insert smiling face here!!!) It's all in fun, right?

I’ll be sharing projects, quilts, or tutorials each month using the items

from the video.

I want to thank Island Batik,  Aurifil, Hobbs Batting, Accuquilt, byAnnie, and Studio 180 Design  for sending me all of these goodies.

You can find the complete list of  2020 Island Batik Ambassadors HERE.
The Island Batik Ambassador challenge for July is a little different than usual  you won't want to miss it.

I'll be posting all about that challenge soon.

The last week of July I'll be sharing in the

Christmas in July (then and now)

Blog Hop 

hosted by my friend Carol at Just Let Me Quilt.

Coming Soon

A  new blog hop to sign up

to play in September, so come back and check it out.

Whew, there is a lot of Christmas in this post.

Can you ever have enough?

Not me...