Winners!!!!

It's time to choose some winners!!!

A big thank you to Precut Paradise!!!  I hope you all got a chance to know a little bit more about this wonderful new shop!!!  And Dayna has already added some new products to the store and marked down some other products.  So be sure to pop on over to Precut Paradise and score some stash builders :)

And now, a winner :)  The winner of the Riley Blake Bohemian Festival Precuts is . . . 

#19

 Who happens to be Dana Gaffney!!!  Congrats Dana!!!!

And a big thank you to all of you sweet readers who left such lovely comments about my Shifting Gears quilt!!!  You all are the greatest, seriously, your comments just make me feel all warm and gooey inside :)  So, let's pick a winner for a copy of Quilts from 100 blocks :)

Mr. Random.Org says the winner is . . . #30

Who happense to be krisgray!!!!  Congrats!!!!

Thank you again to all my wonderful readers!!!  You really are the best!!!!  Have a Happy Quilting weekend!!!

TNT Thursday - To Market!

I am totally Trying Something New!!!!  Technically I am not trying it for a few more weeks, but the fact that I am trying it is now official!!!  I am going to International Quilt Market!! I got my name badge in the mail yesterday!!  Yippee Skippee!!!!  My hotel and flight are booked and I am counting down the days!!!!   I am so excited, (and a little nervous, if I am being honest :)  So . . . any Market advice for this first timer???

P.S. I just noticed (after my sister pointed it out) that they missed a D in my city name.  I actually live in Cedar City, UT :)

What have you been trying new this week???  Link on up :)

<a border="0" href="http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERmOwnuoN_yJzxwDc-0EeiilcFD1-q0nwIYFJi8QgWQomMNyUe-mWSSLzpB1MHklEHvw7R3SgK4qNy-XzyNo0-QVoY6bWsu3_ACS-uXIDSqii5EEEEgawSE6dBGJI0DWhpWddnS0yvLs/s1600/TNT-thursdays-blog-button.jpg"/></a>

The Fab Little Quilt Swap

I am finally starting on my Fab Little Quilt Swap project.  (Not bad considering I have about a week and a half left until it needs to be mailed :)  My partner loves a rainbow of colors, so I whipped up these little strings.  I tell you I just love surfing through my scrap bins now!!!

Then I used my little paper template of an equilateral triangle to cut those strings into these cute scrappy triangles.  See how they all go from dark to light,  I love the look that creates!!!

And then since my partner also loves stars, I laid those cute little triangles out into this beautiful block.  I used this tutorial from Katie which I have loved for so long and am so glad to be finally doing it!!   This little mini is so much fun so far and I am just loving the way it is coming along!!

Now I just need to sew up the rows and add the corners.  Then it's will be ready for some quilting.  I am thinking of doing something a la my Double Dresden style with some alternating colors.  It if comes out the way I have it in my head it will be awesome!!!  I am off to go sew :)

Introducing Shifting Gears QM Rocks The Blocks

** Note - If you are looking for the Precut Paradise Giveaway you can find it here :)

I am so excited to get to share my newest published quilt!!!  It is called Shifting Gears and it is part of Quilt Makers Quilts from 100 Blocks!!!!! 

You might remember from a few months back when I got to share my "Gear Works" block from the 100 Blocks Vol. 5.   

I also shared this little photo and said that I had another little secret quilt to share in the fall.

 Well, it's the fall, and this is the quilt!!!!

Can I just say I am so in love with this quilt!!!  The fabrics are mostly Emily Herrick's Hall of Fame for Micheal Miller and a few other Micheal Miller prints.  I love that these fabrics are All Boy!!!  I had so much fun designing this quilt.   I loved that the secondary block added to the original block created such a  great "gear" movement. And it was so much fun to piece together.  And thank you to Natalia Bonner for quilting it with an all over "circuit grid" pattern that finished it up perfect!!!!

Oh, and I wanted to share a little tidbit.  I shared this in my original Gear Works post but wanted to add it again in case you missed it before.

You can really speed up the process of putting  the "Gear Work" block together by strip piecing your rows together instead of doing individual blocks.

Just decide the width of the quilt and then strip piece your top rows, your middle rows, and your bottom rows to that length.

Then go back and piece your little "cogs" to create an entire row of cogs.

Then it is just simply sewing the rows together to recreate the block but creating 4, 5, or however many blocks at once.  And who doesn't love time savers!!!

Sadly, there are no ways to speed up the connecting blocks, but they are pretty simple and go together fast.

So what do you think???  I hope you love it as much as I do.   And how would you like to win a copy of the magazine so that you can whip up your own version???  Quiltmaker is generously donating a copy for me to give away to one of my fabulous readers.  Just leave me a comment, any old comment will do, and I will choose a winner on the 7th of September :)

Oh, and be sure to pop on over to Quiltmaker to see a list of all of the other fabulous quilters participating in Quilt Maker Rocks the Blocks and have some more chances to win a copy of this fabulous magazine!!!

A Little Quilting Drama

Don't you hate it when you are getting your free motion quilting groove on and then all of the sudden you realize there is a weird bulk that you can't smooth out.  You try and try, and nope won't smooth out.  So you flip you flip to the back to see what the issue is and suddenly realize with horror, that your backing has flipped back and you are quilting the edge of it into your quilt back!!!   Grrrr!!!!  I can't tell you how many times I have done this!!!!

I swear, I check this over and over while quilting.   I pin around the edges of my quilt to avoid it.  I trim  fabric before starting.   Yet somehow, I still manage to sew my excess backing to the side of the quilt.  Yup, time to pull out the seam ripper :)  Please tell me I am not the only one that does this ;)

(I will be showing this quilt soon, I promise :)