Friday, March 8, 2013

The Case of the Disappearing Nine Patch

The Case of the Disappearing Nine Patch.......Sounds like a Nancy Drew book, doesn't it?
When I heard about the Nancy Drew Blog Hop, I joined right away. Ordered fabric and waited ...somewhat patiently. It was delayed, but Woo Hoo here we are, seeing all kinds of cool stuff.
I've been wanting to do an "I spy" quilt since I saw one at my LQS and when Nancy Drew fabric became available, I knew it HAD TO BE and I spy quilt. Next I had to come up with which quilt pattern to use. I know..... what else had a cool name for ND than the disappearing 9 patch? Now to work...."I spy" fabrics for squares 1,3,7 and 9, Nancy Drew fabric for 2,4,6,8 and a coordinating yellow for 5.  Now make sure if the I spy fabric is directional, you put it upside down for the flipping squares 3 and 7.  Now cut Charms...48 I spy, 24 dotted Nancy Drew, 24 blue Nancy Drew, 12 yellow.
Sew, sew, sew. Cut and sew again. I added a coordinating blue border and used the same blue for the binding. Stitch in the ditch and this is how it looks:



(my quilt teacher for my upcoming beginners machine quilting class says she will help me add
cool quilting to the blue border during class despite being already bound. I hope it works out.)

I also purchased the Nancy Drew book fabric.  We have a new home library all in whites, with white shelving and white wicker chairs, but my DH has BLACK speaker for his surround sound. (I know, surround sound in a library?? Well, he also has the home office in there and likes music while he pays the bills). So I asked him how can we disguise the black speakers in the white room? He suggested white wicker baskets. Ok, it helped.....but when I saw the book fabric, perfect! Now the speakers are hidden behind "books".




My last project for today (I still have ND fabric, but not 100% sure what I will make) is a little pocket wallet. I use one all the time so I don't have to carry a purse. It has 4 pockets, one for little things like my Walgreens rewards card, one for credit cards/drivers license, one for coins and one for dollars. I made this one yesterday. I still plan to embroider around the silhouette.
 
Thanks to Carol and Mdm Samm for all you have done to make this a fun hop.
Thanks to MODA for being our sponsor
Well, that was my original post, written but no photos til my DH took them yesterday. No internet service yesterday...was to be up by last night......10:30 pm CST, still no internet....my post is due in 30 minutes....Our local McDonalds has free wifi when they are open. Unfortunately that means not til in the morning. So I was able to send an email by phone to Carol, who was most gracious. I tried our internet first thing this morning but still no service. I came to McD as soon as they were open so I could update my post with photos (and this note of apology).
If you have come back late to visit me, Thanks. 
I will have a giveaway at the end of the blog hop open to all who comment.
 
Congrats to Tammy, the winner of my giveaway. I have sent you an email! Thanks to all who commented on my post.  I appreciate all of you.

 
Please visit all the other wonderful Nancy Drew creators:(full schdule in previous post)
Friday, March 8, 2013


Scrapbook-ChickADoodle (you are here)








 
 
 
 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Nancy Drew Blog Hop Starts NOW!

THE SCHEDULE


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Friday, March 8, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Friday, March 15, 2013

What's been happening lately...

 
 
Lots of things have been going on here, and reading the stories and seeing the creations of the past blog hops has also kept me very busy. I'm excited to show my latest finish, a "sofa cuddle" quilt I made as a wedding present. My friend had seen my BOM that I'm doing at a LQS in pretty brown batiks. She said ohhhh, I hope you're making that for my wedding present. It's perfect for my house. Well, I did not make that BOM for her (we are only starting month 7) but I did make a brown quilt in disappearing 9 patch for her. I added a tiny flange of pink with brown specks as she LOVES pink, but I didn't want it to be too feminine. I did my stitch in the ditch and bound it with a solid brown. I'm super pleased with it. The bride txt me today saying she loved it and slept with it last night!
 



The winner from the previous blog hop All About ME is  Nellie Duclos. Please contact me. I will try again to email you.

Don't forget, the Nancy Drew blog hop starts in a couple hours! Come back on Friday to see mine!
Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Yes, It's finally All About ME !!

Today is my day on the hop and I'm both excited and a bit nervous .... When I saw there was machine buttonhole/blanket stitching, I was more concerned that I didn't know how to do that than figuring out what "I" was going to look like.  I finally decided to go to the local bookstore and see if I could find a book on embroidery. (after all, I'm going to need to learn how, in order to participate in the Stitch Me Up  Blog Hop so why not practice on this?) Woo hoo, I found a book at a bargain $2. Yes, it's an OLD book, but there's lots of good stuff in it and things like embroidery stitches don't change much over the years.(I hope).  So I hand emboidered my "ME".

A little about my "ME",  She is a little CRAFTY. I designed her with blond hair since I'm blond with a sky blue background and sunny yellow border because that's how I see life most of the time. (Notice the "rose colored" glasses?  I have been accused of seeing life through rose colored glasses. Really there is nothing wrong with it, life's much more pleasant when you have a positive outlook). I decided on Crafty since that's what I do. Scrapbooking, Card making, Sewing, Quilting(just learning), Embroidery (again just learning), I've  dabbled in ceramics and candlemaking and other things.
I added some tiny yellow buttons for my pin heads as all my quilting pin heads are yellow. I just couldn't resist adding a few trinkets like the sewing machine, thimble, thread, scissors and ruler.
 

I haven't quilted her yet because I'm waiting. In a very short time my LQS is offering a beginners quilting class and I want to save her for after I know more than just what I have read on blogs about how to quilt. Then she is going in my sewing/craft room.

Be sure to visit the rest of the creative ladies today (if you missed any, the entire schedule is in my previous post).

A big thanks to Madame Samm and Marlene for all the hard work you put in to make this hop such a big success. You INSPIRE!

Thanks for stopping by. I am currently out of town, but I do appreciate your comments. I doubt I will have internet access other than my phone, so will not be responding to comments. I want you to know your comments are appreciated, so there will be a giveaway of fat quarters open to all who comment.

Monday, February 18, 2013

It's All About Me Blog Hop


Woo Hoo!  The "It's All About Me" Blog Hop starts tomorrow! Join us in the fun!

Tuesday, February 19

Just Let Me Quilt
Sunshine Quilting
Spoilt Dog Quilts
Karen at That Other Blog
Grammie Q
Gracie Oliver Arts
Marjorie's Busy Corner
SnippetsNScraps
Sowing Stitches
Pigtales and Quilts


Wednesday, February 20

Buzzing and Bumbling
Cherries Prairie Primitives
Kwilty Pleasures
Sew On And So Forth
Sew. Darn. Quilt.
A Stitch In Time
Doodling In My Mind
Moosestash Quilting
A Patchwork Life
Vickie at That Other Blog
Susie's World


Thursday, February 21

Kris Loves Fabric
The Quilting Alleycat
Cat Patches
Bumbleberry Stitches
Chickadees Country Cottage Crafts
In Stitches and Seams
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Quilting Unleashed
Rosemary at That Other Blog
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Sew Many Yarns


Friday, February 22

A Little Bit of Lorene
Life In The Scrapatch
Boston Bits
I Love Wool
Patchouli Moon Studio
As Sweet As Peaches
Just Quilt It
Grandmama's Stories
The Slow Quilter
Robin at That Other Blog
Scrapbook-ChickADoodle


Monday, February 25

Quilting Lines
Mountain Delights
Jane's Fabrics and Quilts
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Ramblings of an Empty Nester
NautiStitcher
Quilt Doodle Designs
Living Life
Freemotion By The River
The German Mom
Stitchin'ByThe Lake



Tuesday, February 26

Pat Sloan's Blog
To Love Handmade
Feathered Nest Studio
Selina Quilts
Gypsy Dreamer Quilts
Sheila's Quilt World
Meadowbrook
13 Woodhouse Road
Zellerwear
Stitches of Love
Janice at That Other Blog
In The Sewing Basket


Wednesday, February 27

The Passions of Cliodana
QuiltMamas
Marathon Quilter
Marla's Crafts
Fiber Babble
Simple Sew
Sewn Seabees
Charlotte at That Other Blog
Nini's Patchwork
Charlotte's Creations
Ipiece2-Mary
My Spoolish Art


Thursday, February 28

Cherry Blossoms
Hill Valley Quilter
Dachsies With Moxie
I Like To QuiltBlog
Quilt Smiles
More Stars In Comanche
Tea Time Creations
Shedding the Wolf
Life, Quilts, and a Cat Too
Judy at That Other Blog
Madame Samm

Sunday, February 17, 2013

My First Full Size!

I'm pretty excited! My first Full size flimsy is done! Woo Hoo! I used a pattern from Deonn. She called it Winding Stars. When I first saw it, I LOVED it. It was time to make a quilt for my Mom, so I thought this would be perfect in the greens and yellow of her bedroom.  It needed to be full size to fit her bed. Ok, maybe a bit much for a beginner quilter, but you have to start sometime. I planned to enlarge the size of the blocks to make it more to my Mom's taste. It was a bit more work than I expected since the size of the HST's weren't one of the sizes on my June Tailor Perfect Half Square Triangle Template. If I had to do it over again, I would still enlarge it but I would make sure the HST's are one of the standard sizes and adjust from there.  I needed 6 blocks, then borders. The first 4 blocks were done and I HAD TO sew them together. I just needed to see if it was going to be what I had in mind. I LOVED it! Ok, two more blocks to go. Finished #5 block and life interrupts.(We decide to move the office downstairs to the main floor and out of my craft room to give me more space now that I am quilting. DH builds a library wall in the future office and moves desk, computer, dual monitors and the 3 printers out of the craft room/office. No problem, I'll get back to finishing soon......Woo Hoo, finally back to sewing, 5 of the 10 rows of the last block sewn. My new design wall (no I didn't have an old one) arrives in the mail, yeah! DH helps me install it and I immediately put finished block #5 up! It looks great! I start the second half of block 6 and after sewing the squares for rows 6 - 10 together, I start sewing the rows together. Oh NO! They don't match....what did I do?? Ok seam ripper, let's get busy! Resew and the rows are perfect now. I decide to put up half of finished #6 on the design wall with the finished #5 and it's the wrong size! What Happened??? I think I must not have done a good job at staying at 1/4" seams. I'm running out of time before I see my Mom...I need to finish this flimsy and get the quilt done soon! Forget blocks 5 and 6. I will just use 4 blocks and increase the borders. It's my only hope of getting this done on time. This is how it turned out:
This is taken on a full size bed and the blue/brown is the bedding for that bed. The flimsy side border is the yellow. I didn't want the quilt to have too long of an overhang as Mom's bed is against a wall and it would be more difficult for her to make the bed. I rather like how the pattern is on the bed and the borders on the pillows/overhang.

I'm very happy with it. Now I needed to make the backing. I knew I wanted a pieced back and wanted to use up as much of the leftover fabric from the top as possible. I did need to buy a small amount of extra fabric. I also added block #5 to the back. I like this too......

Sorry about the photo. It's hard to see the color differences in the yellows. The photo my DH took of the top is much more color correct, but doesn't have the second yellow that I purchased to finish the back. My DH took the first photo above yesterday and I took this photo of the back today. (He was a bit under the weather with a sinus headache so I didn't want to bother him to take the photo....I think next time I will)
 
The binding is sewn and ironed, ready to add to the quilt once I quilt it tomorrow. I hope I remember to photograph it once it is finished. (I'll try to get DH to do a good photo of the back then as well as the front)


Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. Don't forget to check my post from yesterday....there is a great giveaway!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Cool Giveaway! Ecolux light!

Patti at "A Yankee in Queen Liz's Court" is having a giveaway until Monday for a Ecolux light.
Check it out! What an awesome light. I know I need one. If you do, check out Patti and her giveaway!