Holiday Lane Blog Hop & Giveaway

 It's day ONE of the HOLIDAY LANE Blog Hop!  So, FIRST, Lets give a BIG THANKS to Pauline Francis of Quilt'n Queen and Madame Samm for sponsoring this fantastic Hop.  

I cannot believe how time flies,  Gee, tomorrow is Thanksgiving already.

So without further ado.... Here is my pillow:

This was a lot of fun to make.  I had all kinds of ideas as to how I could embellish it but my husband seen it and said it was perfect and not to do anything else to it.  

He is such a great supporter of my quilting.  I can always count on him to give me his honest opinion of my work.  (which is what I want even though sometimes it is hard to hear)

I don't know about anyone else, but I have been really busy getting ready for Christmas.  Every year in December, the University of Tennessee has a "Santa's Village".  There is a large train set up, all kinds of things for the children including a petting zoo, and lots of venders.  This year I am setting up a table with some of my things.  So, I have been busy making all kinds of different items.  Here are just a few things that I have:

(I thought mother/daughter aprons were so cute...I made quite a few)

(I have lots of items including a lot of Pin Cushions, Scissor Holders, Wallets, Change Purses, Cosmetic Bags, etc.)

Now I know you all heard of "MISSOURI STAR" QUILT CO. I got the best Christmas fabric there and such a great price too.  I made these wall hangings with some of the fabric that  I got:

"Bells are Ringing"  32" X 32"

"Merry Christmas"  43 1/2" X 43 1/2"

Oh, I also made this Christmas Quilt with their fabrics:

"Christmas is Coming"  50" X 50"

I am not done either.  I want to make stockings and more toppers.  I am all excited and having lots of fun at the same time.

OK, enough of my things....Go check out the rest that have blogs today in the "Holiday Lane" Blog Hop:

                                            Just Let Me Quilt

Simple Sew

sew .darn.quilt

 Color My World 

Sew Maybe I Can

Handmade by Mary E

Sew Many Yarns

Pigtails and Quilts

Tea Time Creations

When you are done checking all these great blogs....Go to: Quilt'n Queen  and get the full schedule, for you will not want to miss a one in this great "Holiday Lane Blog Hop".  Today is the first and it will run through November 30th.  So have fun........

                         

MISSOURI STAR QUILT CO. has great deals saving you from 30% on up every day.  Yup....Every night at MIDNIGHT they post a new deal.  Visit them at:  QuiltersDailyDeal.com  Check out their deals, then their whole site and don't forget to sign up for their newsletter so you won't miss a thing.

Did you know that MISSOURI STAR QUILT CO.   has the Best Free Quilting Tutorials on the internet?   Oh I sure think so.  You can find them at:  youtube.com/MissouriQuiltCo.com 

Well,  MISSOURI STAR QUILT SHOP is sponsoring me and gave me these two GREAT Books to GIVEAWAY to TWO  lucky winners.  

To the first winner will receive the book,  "Farmhouse Retreat, by Renee Nanneman

The second winner will receive the book, "Make it Modern Quilts" by Ann Hansen.

To enter is easy, first, you must be a follower, then just leave me a comment.  That is it!  The giveaway will run thru November 30.  Then I will go to Random.com and will let it choose TWO lucky winners.  

GOOD LUCK AND

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE!

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

A SnippetFact Award???

Has anyone ever heard of SnippetFact.com ??

I just got an e-mail and was told that I got a Quilt award from SnippetFact.com.


                                     

I read that SnippetFact.com is a community built 'facts only' website, created to improve factual content on the web, and make a more trustworthy and fun resource to discover information, and improve intelligence.  So should I be excited??  

Please,  I would like some input here, what are your opinions on this??


To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

Red Work / Blue Work

Two years ago I had made my first Red Work quilt.  I wanted to make something different at the time so I had drawn a picture of quilting ladies all together quilting a top.  Each  of the ladies have different chairs, hats, dresses, etc.   Then I put two quilts hanging in the background.   I traced it carefully onto a white piece of fabric and embroidered every line.  Then I cut it to the size that I wanted and made different red and white squares and half triangles all around.   I then hand quilted it all around each seam.

Total size is 28" X 32" .

So this year I got the great idea to make a Blue Work Quilt for Christmas.  Oh, yeah, this would be fun.  I have been wanting to make more Red Work quilts but keep getting side tracked with so many other things to make.

Anyway, here is my drawing of  my Snowman:

I traced it carefully onto white fabric and I then used a dark blue thread and embroidered all of the lines.  Yeah...this is something that I could do sitting on my porch enjoying the fall leaves, and birds singing.  

Next, I squared the fabric to the size that I wanted and put a 2 inch, glittering blue snowflake fabric around the boarder to look like a frame.    

I quilted snowflakes all around the snowman and then did in the ditch around the boarder.  

The total size is:  16" X 16".

This was a lot of fun to make.  I can see me doing a lot more Red Work and Blue Work in the future.  Gee...Is there such a thing as Green Work, or Orange Work.....Why not!

Hay, HOLIDAY LANE BLOG HOP is approaching us real fast.  It is hard to believe how time goes so quickly.  Won't be long before Christmas is here.  So mark  your calenders  you don't want to miss this last hop of the year.   It starts on November 21st.  AND I will be blogging the first day.  

Till then.....

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE!!

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

"Let it Snow" Flannel Quilt

I  surely got carried away when I decided to make this flannel quilt for out bed.   It is extra large, oh so soft and cuddly.  It quickly became our favorite.

I wanted to make it a theme that was "Winter", not just Christmas.  I want to be able to put it on our bed and use it from the first of the cold weather till it warms up again in the spring.  So I went with a "Snow" theme.  I even put its name in applique in the center.

After I appliqued it on by machine, I used silver glitter fabric paint to make snow flakes all around it.  

Each of my blocks are different sizes, the "Let it Snow"  block is 16" X 12", and there are 2 of them, whereas my snowman block is 12" X 12".  I made 4 of these.  There are 2 on each side.  The eyes are painted on with dimensional black fabric paint.

I also made 4 Cardinals sitting on a pine tree limb.  These are 10" X 12".  The pine needles were put on by small slivers of green flannel fabric then I  zig zagged across them on my machine using an invisible thread to hold them in place, being careful not to distort them.  The bird was also machine appliqued and the eye was but on with dimensional fabric paint.  There are a total of 2 of these on my quilt. 

I also put on houses with snow on the roofs.  These are large 14" X 17" blocks.  I made them larger to put stars on top. I made a total of 4 of these.

Because of the blocks all different sizes, I also made filler blocks.  Some have appliqued snowflakes, stars, a Snowman's head, Penguins, Mittens, some are just plain blocks,strips,  some are HST's, etc.  Why I even have a couple 9 patch blocks.  

This ended up a lot larger than planned.   For some reason I just kept adding and adding.  But in the end, I feel it turned out OK.  When all my blocks were made I added a 3" plaid boarder all around.  

I used a regular cotton batting but I used fleece for the backing.  Because of the thickness and how heavy the whole thing was, I decided not to quilt it but to tie it at the corners of each of my blocks.  I used  a heavier yarn and also a variegated color so it would blend in with my quilt colors all over. Then I put a dark green binding on.  

I am sorry that it is not a good picture.  Being flannel and with a fleece backing, then so large and heavy, it just does not lay flat and perfect like other quilts.  The total size is 104" X 120".    It may not be the prettiest, or win any prizes but let me tell you, I  really had fun putting this one together.  It was like a puzzle all the way.  Now that it is finished, it has become my husbands favorite.  It sure does keep us warm all night long. 

OK, back to quilting.  I have so many things that I want to make before Christmas.  

Before I do, I also want to let everyone know that I am also going to be in another blog hop starting November 22nd.   "Holiday Lane"

This is the last one of the year, so I know you don't want to miss out on it.    ALSO, there are going to be GREAT giveaways.  Why, I myself  am having one that you will not want to miss.  So mark your calendars   

Till then.....HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE!!

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

A Halloween Story and Winner Announced

                               

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE…. Are you all ready for the little ghosts and goblins coming to your house tonight for candy?  We all know they are all ready and can’t wait to get started.  So get your candy ready here they come…

                                        

I want to give a special thanks to Wendy at “Why Knot Kwilt” and Madame Samm, for they both did such a terrific job in hosting this hop.  I have been really busy here since I posted and they really kept me up to date with all the other blogs and what was happening.  I enjoy going and reading all the other blogs for you can really learn a lot. 

                                        

I wanted to tell you about my son, his friends and Halloween.  He is never afraid to try anything and is always out for a good time.  So one year he and his friends decided to get a float together and enter the Jack Frost parade in Hamburg, PA. 

These kids are pure “Country”.    Is what they did was decorate their float for Halloween, and recorded a few country songs by singing Karaoke.   But when they did, they sang them with a very strong Pennsylvania, Dutch accent.  Then dressed as Amish and called themselves the “Dutchy Duo and the Boogie Woogie Buggy Boys”.  Believe me....they really looked the part!

The first year they did this, it went over really big.  Everyone had soooo much fun.    The girls (one which is now our sons fiancé) dressed in cow costumes.  They had pounds of candy and passed them out to all the children along the route. 

The next year they did a lot better but some had other things to do at the same time.  The band got a little smaller and they lost their drummer at the last minute.  Our son had a great idea, he called his aunt.  Sure enough, she did not let him down and was in the parade that year.  

The next two years were the best.  They all got together and even  had the correct costumes, the boys were now out of school and most grew their own beards.  They were all set!  Why they even got a new drummer.  Our oldest grandson.

They did great! They sang and danced to their songs.  Why they even danced with some of the watchers.  The girls, when not dancing,  passed out candy to the children along the route (until they ran out.  WOW, to tell a little one you ran out of candy, now that is hard for them.)    They won the prize at Hamburg and lucky for them there was a scout there from the “Mummer’s Parade”.  This is one of the large parades out of Philadelphia. They were asked  to enter on New Years day.  They sure did and won second place in their division.  What an experience for all of them.

We were very fortunate, for all but one parade, my husband pulled the float and I took the movies.  They also gave me the important task of pushing play on their recorder, hahaha.

Memories…..make lots of them with your children, you will never regret it!

OK, enough of that…I know that you are all wondering who the winner of my stack of Connecting thread fabric is.  It is time to go to Random.com.   I had        comments (entries).

It gave me number      17  ...........   MOOSE STASH QUILTING                  

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

                                               


I will be sending you an e-mail shortly to verify your winnings.   
I do hope everyone is making memories tonight……

                                           

HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!
   

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

LOOK OUT...The Wicked Blog Hop & Giveaway

LOOK OUT.... The Wicked Blog Hop is off to a GREAT start!!  Today is only the second day and I know everyone is having a WONDERFUL time thanks to Wendy from Why Knot Kwilt and Madam Samm.

So, today is my day and I want to show you my block.   I drew three Ghosts stacking up Pumpkins.

After my previous paper pieced block...This was a piece of cake!   I once again dug into my scraps (one of my favorite things to do.  Course I have so much)  I was in high search for the right shades of orange for the pumpkin and wanted green to look like grass and blue to look like the dark sky. 

I used Lite Steam-a-Seam II and cut out all my pieces and sewed my grass and sky together.

Next I arranged them onto my block where I thought they looked good.  I pressed them in place then machine appliqued them on using the blanket stitch.  Then squared my block to a 10 1/2" square.  

Unfortunately I have so many things going at this time, I did not yet figure out what I am going to do with it.  I am leaning toward making a pillow.  Or add it to the one I made before, the paper pieced  ghost.  Or, make a small wall hanging with it.  What do you think?  

I do want to share my Wall hanging I made earlier.  I call it "Come On In".  This one is 22 " X 33 1/2" .  I have it hung on my entry door.

Here is another that I made last year.  Everyone who knows me, knows I like to be different and have fun.  "Trick Or Treat"  Total size is 36" X 17".  

Now that you seen my block, I want to ask you to continue on this Wicket Hop and check out all the others that posted today.  Here is the list:

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Hill Valley Quilter

Fignie - A Geekie Crafty Life

Hot Pink Peonies

 Sew Me Something Good

Buzzing And Bumbling

Polkadot Classic

Piece Peace

Selina Quilts

Pigtales And Quilts

But don't stop there.  Check out Wendy's blog  and get the list for each day to visit everyone's post and see their blocks.  I heard there are some pretty Wicked ones coming.  Believe me, you will not want to miss a one!!

Oh, now I have something Wicked to GIVEAWAY.   Oh yeah, I have this pack of  26    -   5 inch charms.  There are  colored leaves, acorns, etc.  all in different cool fall colors.

Oh yeah, this is the assorted Fall Charm pack called "Maple Skies" from Connecting Threads.

All you have to do is be a follower and leave me a comment.  Tell me, what are YOU doing this Halloween?  Are you getting dressed up, if so, what is your costume going to be?  On October 31st, I will go to Random.com and pick a winner which I will immediately announce that day.  Have I got a great Halloween story to tell you........

Till then,

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE 

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com

My Paper Pieced Ghost Block

I must admit this was a big challenge for me.  I only ever made 1 paper pieced block before.  So this was going to be my second time.  No Problem....Right??

The first block I ever did went good. I had no problems, actually had fun making it.   So why would this one give me any problems??

Now, I have a problem with following a specific pattern - I always have to add something of my own to it or just simply draw my own.  So why couldn't I draw my own this time?

   (Boy was that a Mistake!!)

Well, I did - I drew this simple (so I thought it was) block.

It will end up a 10 1/2" block. So next I colored it in so I knew where to put what colors when I sewed it.

So far so good....but now I had to draw the lines as to where to sew it all together.  I bet I worked on this for hours, trying to figure out where and how.  (It sure would have been easier if I knew more about paper piecing.)   After a day of staring and erased lines everywhere.  I came up with this idea:  

I found that dividing it into sections was the easiest.    The first section is the center.  The bottom of the house, tombstones and  the upper section of the ghost.  (hardest is over...YEAH)  (To get my pattern, copy and paste to your PC and use dimensions mentioned on pattern.)

Then I sewed my moon and roof top. When they were completed, I sewed them fast to my first section.

Next I sewed my tree together.    PHEW... I am getting there.  

I added this to the side of the house and am now ready to put the last section on.  So I sewed the bottom of the ghost together.

I added this to the bottom, aligning my seams carefully.  After all this I don't want to goof it up now.   

Well, here is my block:

Total finished size is 10 1/2"

Now when I did mine - I goofed and didn't have enough green for the last piece.  Unfortunately, I didn't even have enough to rip and re-do it.  So I just added a little piece to the bottom corner.  Whew!  I can't believe this was so much trouble.

I must confess that by the time I finished by block, I had lines everywhere in my pattern.  So I re-drew it for this blog.  If you  copy and paste the pattern, make sure you enlarge it to the size given on each piece,  hopefully you will not have any problems.  If you do, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.

After all the problems I had with this, I had to try to make another, but with a pattern.  I had to prove to myself that it really isn't hard.   So I made 2 witches and 2 pumpkin blocks.  Each measured 4 1/2" square.

These went really easy after that other block.  So, I added them to a plain center to make a table topper for our Dining Room table.  I quilted it in a grid pattern and in the ditch in the rest.  

The reason I made the middle so plain....My husband made me this beautiful Granite Lazy Susan for on top of it.  Let me show you.  

I do not know yet how I am going to finish my Ghost block.  I am certainly am not giving up on paper piecing, just making my own blocks for now.  Gee, I think I will make some of the other Halloween paper piece blocks that I have seen.  I do want to thank Soma from "Whims and Fancies" for all her help and support.  She pushed me beyond what I thought I could do.  Thank you for that.  

Everyone, Please go to her site at:   Whims and Fancies   Check out the schedule, for each day this month you will see a new Halloween pieced blocks.  I know you will not want to miss a one.  

ALSO,  Coming up "Something Wicked is Coming this Way"   Blog Hop.  It will start on October 22, and run through October 31.  You will not want to miss this one either.  

                                         

Till then:

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE!!!

To get special designed quilts or to see my gallery, check out my site at: http://janesquilting.com