Magenta and Teal make 6!!!

While I do have a finish (or 2) from this week, I can't share them yet, but, I can share the two additional Scraptastic Star Blocks that I finished from my Leader and Enders from making those two can't share finishes :)    The first one was the Magenta color scheme, and ya know, I was totally loving this because it's in the purple family!!! 

And the second is the Teal block, and funny thing, this is my daughters favorite color!!!  So she was totally wanting this block as soon as I finished it.  But ya, I told her this is all part of my Scraptastic Stars  Leader and Ender project  and so she will just have to make her own :)    And I for sure have enough 2 1/2" squares for her to do just that!

And that means 6 down and only 10 to go!!!   Eeekk, I am so loving these!!   Each time I make another block and do a little happy dance seeing these rainbow of colors come together.   Next up is the light Yellow block and it will for sure add some more sunshine to this stack!!!

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

9 Year Blogiversary and Introducing Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!!

Wow, so this week marks the 9 Year anniversary of staring my blog, Happy Quilting!!!  Just wow!!!  In that 9 years I have posted over 2000 blog posts, hosted over 300 Giveaways,  created over 75 free step-by-step tutorials, including the annual Quilt Alongs, and made a countless number of quilts!!!   And more importantly, I have made a countless number of quilting friends along the way!!!    I am daily grateful that I can share this quilting journey with each of you and can not thank you enough for joining me!!!

And so, with this being 9 years that means next year is my big 10 year anniversary.   And as I considered this, I decided I wanted to do something special leading up to that big 10!!!  I thought for a while and  I decided to do a new little feature here at Happy Quilting :)  It's called  Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!    Staring next week, and every Thursday leading to July 2020 I will share one of my Happy Quilting tutorials.   And I plan to share some "bonus features" on each of the tutorials.   Some more of the story of the quilt, the design inspiration, or just some funny introspect that I realize now after writting for 9 years ;)  My hope is that for a lot of you who joined in on the Happy Quilting journey somewhere along those 9 years, that you will get to see a little throwback from the past, and hopefully some "new to you" tutorials that inspire you ;)   And for those who have been with me from the start, well, it will still be a throwback and I hope you will be equally inspired to try something from "yesteryear" :)

And what better way to start off a Tutorial Throwback Thrusday that just happens to be on the 4th of July than with a Star Spangled Tutorial!!!  So let's throw way back to 2012 when I shared my Star Spangled Table Runner Tutorial!!!

And right away, the fun thing I realized with sharing these throwbacks is that with older tutorials comes older pictures as well.   These pics are at 200 pixels, which means sorry, a little blurry when I try to make them larger ;)  Another thing that I learned with time.   But I did try and spruce up the color a bit ;)

Anyhow, this tutorial is such a fun one to make!!!   I learned to do improv curves at a retreat and enjoyed every second of it.  So I incorporated what I had learned into this tutorial.   You make the improv curve by stacking your strips on top of one another with an inch overlap.  

And then you just start cutting a wavy curve, and it cuts both pieces with the same curve, making it easy to sew together.   And when I say easy, I do mean easy.  Because these are improv curves and they will be trimmed, it doesn't even matter if your ends line up, just start stitching and see where you end up, and then trim the ends straight.  So fun and easy and a wonderful way to start learning curves because you can't go wrong!!!

And then add some machine applique stars and you have a cute table runner!!!  And if you have never done applique before, I did a video tutorial over here that walks you through all of the steps of applique.   So you can possibly try two new things with this tutorial, Applique and Improv Curves!!

And another reminder that this particular tutorial is quite a throwback, I am quilting it on a home machine, and it happens to be my very first sewing machine ;)   I actually posted about Bernadette back here.    I still have her and she is a great little machine for teaching beginning sewers on.   I just love that!!    And speaking of the quilting, I did some all over Stars and Loops, which is a design that happens to be in the 180 More Doodle Quilting Designs book that I posted about over here ;) 

And how about that for our first Tutorial Throwback Thrusday!!!   That really was so much fun :)   So to make your own Star Spangled Table Runner just pop over here to the free step by step tutorial.   And when you are done, I would love to see it!!!  !!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your Star Spangled Table Runners!!!

Thanks so much for popping in today and each and every day!!!  I am so looking forward to this entire year of Tutorial Throwback Thursday's!!  I really think it is going to be a fun feature that has a lot of looking back over the Happy Quilting journey ;) 

Handmade Holiday Banners and Tutorial!!!

This morning I am thrilled to be sharing my newest finish as well as a new  AccuQuilt Tutorial  as well!!!   I love decorating for the Holiday's and when AccuQuilt shared their brand new Pennant Die I knew that it would make the cutest banners.  And these banners all use Strip Piecing and Applique to really take them up a notch from your basic banners.  And here they are!!!

And since tomorrow is the 4th of July, let's share this super cute Bomb Pop Banner first!!  Isn't it just so fun.  By using the Curved Pennant die upside down, a little strip piecing, and adding a little ribbon, you totally get the look of a bomb Popsicle and how great is that for the 4th!!!    And then of course, a little applique Happy 4th in navy finishes it off just perfect :)

And before you know it, summer will be done and we will move into fall.   And sad to say, Halloween really isn't my favorite, but I do love the Candy Corns!!!   And by using the Traingle  Pennant die upside down, a little strip piecing, and adding a Halloween Applique, you totally get the look of a Halloween Candy Corns!!!   How cute is that :)   And I later thought, you could totally turn Traingle  Pennant die around for the look of Pie for Thanksgiving and make another fall inspired banner ;)  

And finally, you all know I love playing with a rainbow of colors in my quilts, and I totally wanted to make a rainbow banner as well.   So I came up with this Spring Banner using the Angled  Pennant die, a little strip piecing, and then the fun Spring and Flower appliques.   And I just love the spring time rainbow, makes me want to breeze right through all the seasons to get back to Spring so I can hang this up ;)

  

And those are the three Holiday Banners I came up with, but of course, the sky is the limit!!  I loved using Strip Piecing to really make each banner pop.   And they are so fun and fast to make.  I made all 3 in a day!!!   Don't you just love being able to add a little Handmade to your Holiday decor :)

So if you want to make your own Handmade Holiday Banners just pop on over for the free step by step tutorial!!!    (And just FYI, a bunch of Accuquilt Dies are on Sale right now, including the Letter ones!!   And you can use code FIREWORK for free shipping all this week ;)   When you are done making your own Holidy Banners, I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  and #AccuQuilt or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your Holiday Banners!!!

Thanks for joining me today and sharing this new tutorial with me ;)   I had so much fun creating these Banners!!!  And the sky really is the limit of what banners you could create using the new Pennant Die .  I am thinking I might have to try that Pie one next :)

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Day and for my friends in the USA a Happy 4th tomorrow!!!  

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day so let's have some fun :)

First, we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway :)

The winner of the $50.00 Gift Certificate from Bear Creek Quilting Company is . . .  Number #156 . . .   Congrats Liz Horgan!!!   I have emailed you :)   

 

        

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts.  Green Fairy Quilts is your home for pre-cut goodness and they always have amazing sales going on every weekend on a selected pre-cut or notion!!! Right now you can save on all Jelly Roll's during the Summer Jelly Roll Clearance !!!  And did you know that Green Fairy Quilts has a Deal of The Day!!!   Be sure to check those out for some major quilting savings!!!

And for today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway, Green Fairy Quilts will be giving one lucky reader a Kringle & Claus Jelly Roll by Basic Grey for Moda!!  Just in time for some Christmas in July projects!!!

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 if you have any Christmas in July sewing projects planned??

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Green Fairy Quilts love.   You can Sign up for their Newsletter which I highly recommend as it will ensure you catch all of their amazing sales!!  You can follow them on Twitter or Facebook,  or you can visit the Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Green Fairy Quilt Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, July 9th when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Fave Quilts Spotlight

So, have you heard of FaveQuilts??  It is an absolutely wonderful resource.  I like to think of FaveQuilts as an amazing ( and huge) Quilting Library ;)  It is just like going to the library and looking for a good book, only this time, you are looking for the perfect tutorial or free pattern.    And today, they are featuring my patterns and that just is all kinds of sweet of them!!! 

You can use the Categories on the left hand side of the main page to help you narrow your search.  And just like the library, you can search by type of quilt, size of quilt, designer of quilt (Yup, I have a designer profile there too ;)  and the list goes on.  Then when you find the quilt you like, Fave Quilts provides the link of where you can go directly to the creates site and find the project!!  I love that they send you to the creators site, it has helped me to discover some amazing new blogging friends!!!

And Fave Quilts is always posting articles that help you find awesome projects all grouped together by what type of projects they are.   For example, you can Pop Over Here to see an article on 24 Fat Quarter Quilts,  (and if you are like me, you have Fat Quarters stashed that could really use some Fat Quarter friendly tutorials ;)  Or over here is an article on 13 Wedding Quilt Patterns.  And some even have basic quilting info, like this one on What Size is a Lap Quilt and then several Lap Quilt Patterns attached.     And my Crossroads Quilt just might be featured in that article!!! 

So here is a shout out to FaveQuilts!!  I so appreciate them spotlighting me today ;)  So, if you haven't checked them out before, you might want to just pop on over for a visit ;)  They have a little post here on how to get the most out of the sight, just FYI.   So enjoy the eye candy cause there is enough there to see for hours and it might just make  your "to make someday" list grow in spades ;)  Have fun!!!