Dutch Tulips

Today I am so excited to share my newest quilt finish, Dutch Tulips.  And I like to call this the "What Little Girls Are Made Of" edition.  And if you can't tell why, I will show you in a minute ;)  How adorable are those tulips!!!!

  

I loved the new Dutch Tulips pattern from It's Sew Emma the moment I first saw it.  So when I was asked by my good friends at the Fat Quarter Shop to Quilt Along with its release, I was so super excited and of course, all over it!!!

I knew that I wanted to make a big baby size quilt, so I added an additional row to the crib size so that it is the perfect size to snuggle up a little precious bundle in.    And the Impressions Templates made quick work of those petals, I just love me so raw edge applique!!!

I used fabrics from Lella Botique's first line, Into the Woods.  I just love Vanessa's fantastic fabrics and I had some leftover from a project a few years back.  I knew right away that those pinks and reds would be the perfect match for these adorable little tulips!!!

When it came time to quilt, I went with a favorite all over design of curly q's.  I just love how relaxing these are to quilt.    And I added a little something fun in that large floating border.

Before loading the quilt on to the long arm, I printed out the words Cuddles, Kisses, Snuggles, and Love  (Because that is what little girls are made of, so cute!!!!)  I put the print out under the quilt top and traced the words onto it using my water soluble pen.   Then I quilted the all over design around the words, brought the quilt back to the house, and with my gorgeous Aurifl Red, I stitched in those adorable words.   Eeeekkk, I just love it!!!   Such a soft little touch, but just so sweet!!!

And now it looks so perfect and cuddly, it just needs to have a sweet little baby lying on top of it.  Who knows, maybe my twin sister will decide she wants this quilt instead of the other one I was working on.    One can never have to many quilt for baby right ;)

And that is my Dutch Tulips quilt :)   And if you love these tulips as much as I do and want to make your own, you can find the pattern right over here ;)     It really is a fun quilt to make and it went together so quick!!!  I pretty much pieced the entire quilt in an afternoon besides stitching down the applique.   So fun!!!

Thanks for popping in today and each day!!!  And hopefully, these little Tulips can bring some Spring with them ;)  The snow had just melted to take these pictures but I can see a few flowers trying hard to poke up out of the ground.  Just waiting for the Tulips to bloom :)   

I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!

Linking this finish to Amanda's, Sarah's, and Myra's :)

Winner and Update

It's time to pick the winner of the OLFA Endurance Rotary Blade and Splash Rotary Cutter from last week!!!

And the lucky winner is . . .  #192 . . . Congrats jec!!!!  I have sent you an email ;)

And I thought I would add a quick update about my Carpal Tunnel Release surgery from last month.  Thank you so much for all of the kind words over the last month.  I just love the emails checking up on me and figured it was probably time for an update for everyone ;)  My right hand is healing well. The two incision marks are almost completely sealed and will soon fade.  I am grateful that each day I can do a little more with my hand.  Of course, the more I do the more sore it is by the end of the day, but that is all good.  I am told, on average, it takes a good 6 months to be back to 100% .  So I am just taking it day by day and being grateful when I can do something that I couldn't do the week before without my hand hurting.   So yup, moving onward and upward!!!

Which is a good thing because tomorrow will be my Left Hand's turn ;)  Good Times!!!

So I best get some serious rotary cutting today as that will be off the table again for a couple of  weeks, although I am hoping not quite as long, as I only have to hold the ruler with my left hand :)

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!    Let's have some fun!!!

But  before we get to today's giveaways . . . First,  we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!   The winner of the Fat Quarter Set of Sugar Pie from Shabby Fabrics is . . . Number #80. . . Congrats RosieGma!!!!! I have emailed you :)    

  

    

So on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by  Lou Lou's Fabric Shop .    Did you know that Jamie makes a new Lou Lou Bundle every Tuesday . . . this is today's, isn't it just stunning!!!  Along with hosting the giveaway, Jamie is having a  Fantastic Sale with yardage marked down as low as $6.00 a yard!!!!  And  since she know you are loving the Fat Quarter Bundles, Jamie is also offering all Happy Quilting readers has a special discount of  20% off Fat Quarter Bundles  with the code happyquilting good until Friday!!!  Oh, so much fun shopping!!!

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is for some shopping goodness!!  Lou Lou's Fabric Shop is offering one lucky reader a $20.00 Gift Certificate perfect to use on anything in the store, including the awesome Lou Lou Bundle pictured above!!  Just perfect!!!!

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each.  All Entries are welcome, including International Entries.   Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)  

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment that tells me the best April Fools Day joke you have ever pulled or had pulled on you ;)

 ENTRY 2 - Lets show Lou Lou's Fabric Shop some Love!!!!   You can follow them on   Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.  Or you can follow their blog or  visit The Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Lou Lou's Fabric Shop Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, April 4th  when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Royal - A Cake Mix Quilt and Bake Off!!!

So a little while ago I was asked by my very good friends at the Fat Quarter Shop if I wanted to participate in a "Bake Off" (see more at the end of the post) using Moda's new Cake Mix's.  How fun did that sound!!!  So of course,  I jumped right in ;)  And now today, I get to share with you my finished Cake, I mean Quilt!!!  I call it Royal and I so love it!!!

Have you heard about the new Moda Cake Mix pads??  I hadn't until this, but I am so glad I got to play with them.  They were so, so, much fun!!!  So what are they??  They are a pad containing 45 sheets of triangle papers that are sized 10"x 10" so that you can use them for layer cakes!!!   So perfect since I assume, like me, we all have some stashed layer cakes!!!  

You can see lots more details about Cake Mix's over at Moda's Blog here, and you can check out the fun video Kimberly and Carrie made showing you some great tidbits on how best to use your Cake Mix.  And there are 4 "Recipes" to choose from so the options are endless of what you can create!!

I was using Cake Mix Recipe 1 for Royal.  Each recipe comes with basic block layouts that can help create ideas for your quilt.  I decided to use two of those basic blocks, so half of my papers I pieced into Block 1 and the other half into Block 4 and then it was just sewing them up in this fun layout to create my Royal design.  I love how it created a giant "Star" in the center and then diamond borders coming out from there in layers.   So fun!!!

EDIT - I have been asked if I can share the layout of the quilt broken down and I sure can :)  So here it is.   You will need Cake Mix Recipe #1 and you will be sewing up 32 sets of light and dark layer cake squares.  This will give you 32 Large HST's and  128 small HST's.  On the front of the Cake Mix Recipe #1 you will find 5 Block Layouts.  For Royal, you will need to use your HST's to make 8 of Block layout #1 and 8 of Block layout #4, but notice that the pinwheels in Block 4 are done in the opposite color placement (otherwise you don't get the large star in the center ;)   

  

Now just place your 16 blocks in the 4 x 4 layout as shown below paying close attention to the direction of the blocks and color placement.  Now simply sew your blocks into rows and then your rows into your quilt top ;)     Hope that helps for anyone that wants to make Royal, and if you do, I would love to see a picture!!!

And now, back to Royal ;)  I used Moda Bella Solid Purple  (Hence the Royal name :) and the low volume prints from Basic Grey's Little Black Dress 2 and Maven.  I have been so wanting to make a quilt with a nice deep purple as the "background" and I just love how it sets all of the fun low volume prints to just dance across the quilt.  You know, I love me some purple!!! 

When it came time to quilt it I had to keep it pretty simple.  This is the first quilt I have done on the long arm since my carpal tunnel surgery and I found quickly that it is still a little difficult to grip the handles tightly for long period's of time.  So my left hand was doing most of the driving.  So the ruler was out and instead I went for fun organic back and forth wavy lines and some echoed arches.   I quilted in the direction that helps to play up the star and then diamond borders and am really happy with how it did just that.  But I have to say, it was pretty funny to watch because I had to keep my sketch of the quilt right beside me the whole time and lost track of where I was in the quilt and which way I needed to be quilting a ton of times :)    But so worth it in the end!!!

And that is my Royal Quilt!!!   And I mentioned in the beginning about a Bake Off ;)   Well, the gals at Fat Quarter Shop are always up for a bit of friendly competition.   So each week for the next 4 weeks they will be sharing 4 quilts using a new Cake Mix.    And of course, you get the chance to vote on your favorite!!!  So pop on over to the Jolly Jabber to see, Royal, as well as Kimberly's, Sarah's, and Deborah's gorgeous Cake Mix Quilts!!!  Then vote for your favorite  of this weeks Cake Mix 1 Bake Off!!     This is going to be so fun :)

Thanks for popping in today!!  I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!

March Sew Sampler Box!!!

Oh my goodness, I totally freaked out when I opened the March Sew Sampler box!!!  I mean, how can you know with all of this fantastic quilting goodness ;)    I know I say it every month, but I just love when this fantastic blue box arrives on my doorstep.  It really is like Christmas every month!!

This month's box had a gorgeous Fat Eighth Bundle of Wonderland by Rifle Paper Company for C+S.  And I just adore these prints!!!  My niece played Alice in a play a year back so when she comes to visit this summer I think I will pull these out and see if she wants to make something fun with them ;)   And I am excited to try out the Cotton and Steel thread from Sulky as well.  I have heard great things about it so it will be fun to give it a whirl ;)

And I love this gorgeous set of Rifle Paper Pocket Notebooks.   They are blank pages on the inside and you better believe they will be going right in my purse so that I have a sketch pad handy whenever I see a little quilty inspiration.   Rifle Paper Co just does things so pretty!!!

And finally, I flipped over this adorable Magnetic Pin Bowl by Pleasant Home.   I have been wanting one of these for so long, but just couldn't justify it as I already have a boring plain silver one.   But this one is just so perfectly cute and it even matches the Ruler Pal we got in another Sew Sampler Box.   I just love it!!!!  Now I just can't decide if I want to take it over to go on the long arm for pinning quilts to the leaders or keep it in my sewing room. (Maybe I will just have to get a second one, tee hee hee ;)  

And last but not least . . .  the monthly sampler block.  And you will never believe it, but this block is actually the 12th block.  Meaning Sew Sampler has been going for a year.   And Fat Quarter Shop sent a finishing recipe card this month as well because . . .

This marks the end of the Sew Sampler Series 1 Quilt.   I was so excited I just had to layout my blocks in the front room  (my sewing room floor is currently occupied by a secret project ;)  to see what they all look like together.   So fun!!!    I actually have enough HST's left to make another 8 blocks so that is my plan, then I can have a pretty big size quilt in a 4 x 5 layout.  Best get stitching some more HST's together can't I can wait now to finish this one up!!!

And now I am super excited to see what April's  Sew Sampler Box will bring because there will be a Series Two Quilt starting!!!!   EEEkkk, I just love surprises :)

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

OLFA Endurance Blade & Giveaway!!!

It's no secret that I am an OLFA girl ;)   My mother taught me how to cut out quilts with an OLFA rotary cutter, so of course, when I bought my first rotary cutter it was an OLFA.  In fact, it was the cutter on the far right :)   And the dual sliding one is my current favorite because it is so much easier to teach my left-handed daughter how to cut with it!!!  So, as you can tell, they continue to be my favorite Rotary Cutters!!!  

So when I was asked by the wonderful folks at OLFA if I would like to try out the new 45MM Endurance Rotary Blade I was all over that!!!   And as you can imagine,  I did a little happy dance when this lovely package arrived at my door ;)

The OLFA Endurance Blade has a tungsten tool steel blade with proprietary metal chemistry that is designed to cut twice as long to extend time between blade changes.  Now I don't know much about tungsten steel or metal chemistry, but I do know about "Cut Twice as Long" !!!  And with my hand currently healing from surgery, I am all about blades that stay sharper, longer :)

So, I was super excited to pop it out of its packaging and give it a test run :)   And don't you just love the Quick Change feature of the OLFA cutters.  So easy and fast!!!

And boy did I give it a test run!!!  Remember all of those strips I cut back here . . . well they all needed to be sub-cut and then, I ran out of strips and needed to cut some additional piles of strips.   So ya, there was a whole lot of string cutting going on!!!

And I was having so much fun, I didn't stop there.   You know how I just can't stop staring new projects right . . . Well I cut out another one.   I just love all of those happy polka-dots.

And the blade was so sharp, I figured why not rotary cut my Impressions Templates while I was at it.  Last time I cut these out I used scissors as I wasn't supposed to be Rotary Cutting that soon after surgery.  Wish I would have just gone with the sharp Rotary Cutter.  This was so much faster and didn't hurt my hand near as much as the scissors :)  Gotta love a sharp blade!!!

So ya, I gave the Endurance Blade  a pretty good work out for it's first day and I am super excited to keep on cutting twice as long before having to change the blade.   I know, I am crazy, but I really do love cutting out quilts (probably why I keep starting so many new projects ;)    And cutting them out with a super sharp blade just makes it all the more enjoyable!!!

So thank you so much OLFA for letting me try out the new blade as well as the 12” x 17” Folding
Cutting Mat and the Splash 45MM Rotary Cutter!!! You can find all three products at Jo-Ann
Fabric and Craft Stores, and fine quilt shops featuring OFLA products across the country.!!!  It was a whole lot of cutting fun!!!   Although, I am pretty sure I am going to need to order the Emperor Purple Splash now, because how cool would it be for my Rotary Cutter to match my purple walls ;)  

If you’re headed for Paduach, Kentucky for AQS QuiltWeek®, April 27 and 28, check out OLFA’s
pop-up trail tent to test out the new Endurance blade. QuiltWeek goers can participate in a special
project benefitting Quilt for Kids, a non-profit organization whose mission is transforming fabrics
into patchwork quilts for children in need.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

And the wonderful folks at OLFA  have a special GIVEAWAY for me to host as well!!!  OLFA is giving one lucky Happy Quilting Reader an  OLFA 45MM Endurance Rotary Blade as well as an OLFA Splash 45MM Rotary Cutter!!!

  

So what do you have to do to enter . . .

-Simply leave a comment telling me if you could design your own rotary cutter, what color or  combination of colors, would it be??  

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Wednesday, March 29th , when I will announce a winner here.  

And another something you will want to know about, especially if you are feeling lucky!!!

Want to win a one-of- a-kind quilting adventure for two? Starting April 17, visit
www.OLFA.com/QuiltCruise to enter to win OLFA’s Quilt Cruise Sweepstakes*.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. Sweepstakes startsApril 17, 2017 12 p.m. CST and ends at 7/15/17 11:59:59 PM CT. Must be a legal resident of 50 US/DC and at least 18 years of age. For Official Rules, including how to enter, prize details and restrictions, visit www.olfa.com/quiltcruise. Prize includes transportation to cruise departure port. Void where prohibited.  Sponsor: OLFA, NA distributed by World Kitchen, LLC, 9525 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Suite 300 Rosemont, IL 60018

Thanks for popping in today and each and every day!!!  You guys are the best and I am just so very grateful that I have this little spot to get to share my passion for all things quilting :)  I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!

Note - I received products in exchange for this post, but the opinions expressed are 100% my own.

March Bee Block is Buzzing!!!

This month for our Bees Knees group, Tamara asked us to make an adorable Disappearing 9 Patch block using adorable Bee fabric!!!  How cute is that :)

Disappearing 9 Patches are so much fun and super fast to make!!!  They were some of the first quilts that I learned to make.   It is simply starting with a 9 patch, and then cutting it in half vertically and horizontally, flipping 2 blocks, and sewing them back together.   And just like that, adorable disappearing 9 patch quilts!!!    

 

And then I tried a new little twist of making the 9 patch blocks, slicing them, but then instead of sewing them back together, adding some fun sashing.   I love the added modern flair it gives it ;)

And I still kept playing with this block!!!  I discovered that by playing with the placement of the colors in your 9 patch blocks, you could create all new variations.   These look like they are 4 patches that have been sashed, but nope, just a disappearing 9 patch block that is so much faster than sashing ;)    I did a tutorial way back when for these that you can check out here if you want to make your own ;)  

Anyhow, if you haven't tried a Disappearing 9 Patch block yet, you totally want to add it to your "To Make" list.  They are so much fun and super fast and the possibilities are endless!!!