The Lost Hours

(Click here for the One Monthly Goal January Finish Link-up)

Every Friday night is movie night.  My daughter joins me in my sewing studio turns on the DVD - always one with lots of music.  She watches, I sew and we sing along.

Last Friday, I pulled out my improv project and placed all the blocks on the design wall.  And before I knew it, the movie credits were rolling and two hours had passed!

Hours lost in the sewing room - the very best kind.

I managed to make several new blocks = this was my favorite block from Friday.  Sewing together small pieces of fabric to smaller pieces of fabric - such fun.  This block is 6 1/2 '' wide by 5 '' tall.

My favorite block is sitting on the upper right corner of my design wall layout. I'm not really sure where I am headed with this yet.  I'm loving my fabrics (also used them here).

I started this project in October in an Improvisational: Shapes + Lines class taught by Michelle Wilke.  I love Michelle's work and it was really great to learn from her.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Want to join a swap?

(Click here for the One Monthly Goal January Finish Link-up)

I've been very excited for today's post and hope you will be too!

Over the holidays, I had great fun making a few fabric postcards and mailing them off to a few of my quilting BFFs.  They were really fun to assemble - mini quilts that finish at 4 x 6''.

I've been making a lot fabric postcards and decided it would be fun to organize a postcard swap.

This is a very basic swap - ONLY the postcard is swapped - no extra treats should be included.


Interested?

Here's how it works:

• Sign up for the swap (by February 16*)  Sign up is closed - we reached >100 !! (updated 2/4)
• Choose whether you'll ship a postcard worldwide or just within your own country
• Select a one word clue for the person making your postcard.  The clue could be anything - ex: blue, flamingo, summer .  
• Receive the mailing address of your postcard assignee
• Mail your postcard before March 17 (take a photo of it first)
• Join the postcard parade on April 7 (more info will come on this soon)

*There are 100 slots and signups will close once 100 people have signed up or February 16, whichever come first. 

The basic guidelines - 

• Postcards are 4 x 6 '' and must be made of fabric
• Only the postcard is mailed - please do not include other small treats or extras 
• The postcard can be mailed in an envelope or just as a normal postcard
• Your swap assignee is a secret - shhhh!!

Sharing via Instagram is encouraged.  Use the tag #esqpostcardswap to share any photos of the postcard(s) you make or receive.  Since this is a secret, only tag someone else when you are actually thanking them for the swap card that arrived in your mailbox.  

I've decided to go with 100 swap slots.  I'd like to fill all of those up so if you want to make and swap more than one postcard, you can sign up for up to three swaps.   (Sign up for each one individually.)

To reach 100, I will give priority first to individuals for their first swap and then start adding names with the second and then the third swaps until the 100 count is reached.

Sign up is closed - we reached >100 !!

You can find lots of tutorials for fabric postcards on the web.  I'll publish my own on Monday.

This is going to be a lot of fun.  A postcard swap is just perfect for someone who has never joined a swap before because the time commitment is small. But - and this is important - only sign-up if you intend to follow through.

I'll be linking up my postcards with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - January Finish Link-up

Ready to link up your January finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until January 31 at 11:55 pm ET.

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.  Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Did you read all about the sponsor announcement for this year?  We've got an amazing line-up of designers and really great sponsors.

My goal for January was to finish my Magnolia Mystery quilt from Cheryl's QAL.  I just love it!  You can read more about my finish here.

Now it is your turn to link up - share your goal finish for January.

Please only link up if you finished your goal and if you also participated in the January Goal Setting Link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Make Modern Magazine is offering a 6 month subscription to their digital magazine and Amy Friend of  During Quiet Time is offering 3 PDF patterns from her pattern store.  In addition, anyone linking up at both the goal and finish link-ups earns a point towards the  first quarter bonus prize which is a thread set from Aurifil.

Congratulations to Roseanne, Camille & Martha - our One Monthly Goal winners for January.  
(Winners were notified by email and have accepted their prizes.) -updated 2/4

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (January Goal Setting Link-up.

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - January Finish Link-up

Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Watermelon Wheel - Clementine QAL Block 1

Watermelon Wheel is a great name for a block, especially fun during these cold days of January.  Makes me think of summer!   This is the first block in Fat Quarter Shop's Clementine QAL.

There are two sets of blocks - the larger ones

And the smaller ones

Although these blocks are intended to be sewn together in the final layout, I'm waiting on that step to give myself some different layout options.

I've chosen to use fabrics from Moda Creekside for my quilt. I'm not sure I'll use that green print though.  I've other fabrics from my stash that I might mix in as well.

Fat Quarter Shop's Clementine QAL benefits St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.  Quilters are encouraged to donate $5 for each block pattern.  I really love how they support a different charity each year.  If you love the fabrics in the sample quilt, you can order the kit!

You can ready more about the QAL and get the first block pattern today on the Jolly Jabber and read more about the Clementine QAL.

I am happy to be sharing this QAL blog hop with all these other bloggers - go check them out!

*April of April Rosenthal (@amrosenthal)

Bonnie of Sunset Family Living (@sunsetfamilyliving)

Cara of That Crafty Cara (@thatcraftycara)
Carrie of Moda Cutting Table (@modafabrics)

Denise of Pieced Brain (@piecedbrain)

Elise of Elise and Emelie (@eliseandemelie)

Gina of Carpe Quiltin (@gina_tell_carpequiltin)

Heather of A Creative Pursuit (@acreativemama)

Hilary of By Hilary Jordan (@byhilaryjordan)

Jan of Cocoa Quilts (@cocoaquilts)

Jen of Heritage Threads (@heritage.threads)

Joanne of Quilts by Joanne (@turtlequilterjo)

Kairle of Kairle Oaks Handcrafted Goodness (@kairleoaks)

Kendra of Good Starter (@good_starter)

Kristen of 3 in the Nest (@threeinthenestraleigh)

Kristina of Center Street Quilts (@centerstreetquilts)

Leah of Ponderings from My Heart (@ponderingsfrommyheart)

Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff (@mellierc)

Melissa of Happy Quilting (@happyquiltingmc)

Pat of Pat Sloan (@quilterpatsloan)

Pat B. of Life in the Scrapatch (@scrapatches)

Patty of Elm Street Quilts (@elmstreetquilts)

Rebecca of One Wee Bird (@oneweebird)

Sarah of 123 Quilt (@123quilt)

Seema of SSK Craft Shop (@sskcraftshop)

Sherri of A Quilting Life (@aquiltinglife)

Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts (@sondradavison)

Stephanie of Quilt 'n Party (@quiltnparty)

Tanya of Tanya Quilts in CO (@tanyaquiltsinco)

Teresa of Aurea's Kitchen (@aureaskitchen)

Vickie of Crocheting Vixen (@crochetingvixen)

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Magnolia Mystery - My Quilt

I've got two Magnolia trees growing in my front yard.

Big beautiful white blossoms make me happy every spring.  And now I have a Magnolia inside my house with my latest quilt finish.

I downsized the pattern (no surprise there) and created paper pieced versions of the blocks since I was dealing with 1 1/2'' squares.  The fabrics are from Paintbrush Studios.  I really enjoyed working with these solids.

I had great fun with the quilting.  First, I used my walking foot to quilt a gentle wavy line.  I left a large gap in a couple of places and returned to fill in the gap with my FMQ foot.

The quilt finished at 30 x 40'' and I've the perfect spot to hang it between two doorways.

Besides this quilt, these solids also made themselves into an improv quilt (still work in progress) and a few smaller projects.  I started with a yard of each and have only scraps of the blue so it was tight going as I pieced the binding.

You can read more about the Magnolia Mystery on Cheryl's blog - Meadow Mist Designs.

I had such fun with this one!  I also did her mystery QAL last year - here was my finish for the 2016 mystery that I called Galaxy.

Thanks Cheryl!

I'll be linking up my finish (#4 for 2018) with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Cardinal

We got 6'' of snow on Wednesday - wet, heavy snow.  The next day against the backdrop of snow covered trees, sunshine and a beautiful Carolina blue sky, I took photos of my latest quilt finish.  (Doesn't everyone?)

I'm calling this mini Cardinal.

The mini is 15'' square and used red charm square scraps that I've been collecting.  I paper pieced the stars (they are 4'' finished) but they could have easily been traditionally pieced.

I did some walking foot quilting in a grid - first time I've done a grid!

I just love the light gray polka dot print that the stars are set in.

The pattern is an adaptation of Hometown Mini and will be part of the Minis & More link-up here and here.

I'll be linking up my finish (#3 for 2018) with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

May the Force Be With You

With the latest installment in the Star Wars saga releasing over the holidays, my family decided to go back and watch those original episodes - A New Hope (episode IV), The Empire Strikes Back (episode V) and Return of the Jedi (episode VI) over the New Year's holiday.

What fun we had.  While I remembered many of the classic scenes ("Luke, I am your father."), there was so much about each of these movies that I had forgotten.

As a result, I felt the need to make something Star Wars related.  Not sure yet where I'm headed with these blocks but it really doesn't matter.

Now off to make some of the good guys.

You can find more information about these block patterns designed by Kristy from  Quiet Play in her Quiet Play pattern store.

I'll be linking up my blocks with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Hundred hexies

The attraction of hexies is starting to really appeal to me.  I made 100+ of these in the fall - all solids - and I'm having a great time sewing them together.

I'm going around in a circle - the center is that dark green wrinkly one in the 3rd row.  Each time I add a hexie, I am blindly pulling it from my bag.

I'm not stressing which color ends up next to the other - at least not so far!

It is just wonderful to have a ready to go hand sewing project waiting for me.  I'll keep where I'm headed with this project a secret for now - at least until I get them all sewn together and then I'll share more.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Transparent

Transparent was my final finish of 2017.  Although it made it into my 2017 finish collage, I waited until today to blog about it.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl designed this quilt and shared the pattern during her Wayward Transparency QAL.  It was a fun quilt pattern and Yvonne shared multiple examples of layouts and colorways for the quilt.

I used American Made Brand solids for this quilt, in 3 shades of aqua.  For the quilting, I went with concentric circles.  Given the quilt isn't too big, there weren't too many threads to bury and I really like the effect.

Like many QALs that I participate in, I downsized the pattern, making the blocks at half size.  The quilt finishes at 24'' square.

We got an inch of snow earlier this month so took advantage of it for this quilt photo.  The wind was not my friend that day so this was the only good photo I got.

Thanks Yvonne for a fun QAL.  I'll be linking up here.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Teacher's are the superheros

I sent my sister a quilt to celebrate her recent birthday.  She does a lot to support our parents and I wanted to make her something special.

My sister teaches 3rd grade and is awesome at it.  Happy Birthday sis!

My inspiration for this quilt was from this pattern.  Here's the version hanging in my studio right now to inspire me and my girls everyday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Minimal Minis

Curated Quilts has a call for content for their upcoming issue 3 - minimal mini quilts in a specific color palette.

I love making minis so decided to play with my version of orchid pink paired first with black and then with gray.


Bubblegum

For my first entry, I wanted to set the pink color so it would pop so I paired it with black.  The black fabric is quilted densely and I used pearl cotton to emphasize the pink areas with some hand quilting.  This quilt finishes at 10'' square.

I really like this quilt.

Ladder

With my second entry, my theme is simple.  Simple shape, just a touch of color and quilting to echo the angle of the pink fabric pieces.  This quilt finishes at 10.5"" square.

What a fun challenge this was!

In addition to Curated Quilts , I'll be linking up my minis with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

These are finish #1 and #2 for 2018.  Happy New Year!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Joining One Monthly Goal link-up from Instagram (a tutorial)

Click here to get to the One Monthly Goal January link-up

I'm very excited by all the new people who have discovered One Monthly Goal and are interested in adding their goal to the link-up.  Some of these folks are coming from Instagram and have never heard the word 'link-up' before and are confused about what to do.

Sound familiar?  Than this tutorial is for you!

First step is to post a photo of your project, some words on your goal and the social tags on Instagram.  The social tags for One Monthly Goal are #onemonthlygoal and @elmstreetquilts. 

While the posting of your photo is done by phone, these next steps are done on your computer.

Visit Elm Street Quilts (this blog!) on your computer and navigate to the One Monthly Goal page.  (You can find this several ways but the easiest is the top right side of the page is a image that will always take you to the latest link-up post.)

When you find the goal setting page - here it is for for January - enjoy reading about the awesome sponsors and my personal goal.   

Scroll through the photos that others have posted.  

At the bottom of those photos, you'll see a blue button - Add your link.  

Click on the Add your link  button.   You will now see a page that looks like this.  Even though you are adding your photo from Instagram, you will use the button that says "Blog".

In another tab on your browser, open Instagram to the view of your photos.  (Yes, you can access Instagram from your computer.  You can even comment on photos.  You can NOT post your own photo.)

Find the picture of your goal and RIGHT MOUSE CLICK on that picture.  Choose the option called Copy link address.  

Go back to the browser tab with the link-up and paste (CTL-V) the link to your Instagram photo and hit enter.  Your photo will appear.

Then fill in a title for your photo and your email address.  Only I - the owner of this particular link-up - will see your email address.   It is used to notify the lucky winners of their prizes

Once everything is filled in, hit the submit button.

Now return to the One Monthly Goal post and there you will find your photo.  You did it!

Now take a few minutes and visit other people by clicking on photos of projects you find interesting.

I make it a point to visit every photo that joins the One Monthly Goal link-up.  You'll know your entry is official when I've commented on your photo after I enjoy learning about your project.

Good luck on your goal and don't forget to come back at the end of the month and share your goal finish.


Have a wonderful day! Patty

2017 Finishes

Click here for the One Monthly Goal January link-up

2018 is here and I'm excited to get started on all of my projects.  But first, one last view of my finishes from 2017.  For me, it was quite the productive year.

First the larger quilts - Playful is twin bed sized and Christmas Holly, Be Bold, Happy Birthday Mom and Goldilocks are couch sized.  All the rest are wall hangings.

(1st row) Christmas Holly , Sunset Flight, Mini Charm Chocolates, Freedom
(2nd row) Be Bold, Playful,  Happy Birthday Mom,  Snail Trails
(3rd row) Our Land, Woodland Animals, Kindness, Goldilocks
(4th row) En Provedence, Tulips, Galaxy, Wayward

It is interesting (to me) that so many of these quilts were QALs or blog hop related.  There are four original quilts there - Sunset Flight, Birthday Quilt, Kindness & Goldilocks).  For the others, the blocks were part of a QAL and in most cases, I designed my own setting.  (There is one more finish not shown since it is part of some secret sewing.)

Contrast this with the minis and table runners below.  Only 7 of these came from others designs - the remaining 18 are all mine.

In addition, I created a number of new bag tutorials , some of which are pictured below.

Finally, I made plenty of bags, notebooks and pillows.  I posted about the pillows I made in 2017 here but am including a photo for completeness.  5 of these are original designs.

Thanks for reading through my projects of the year.  Now on to 2018!

Have a wonderful day! Patty