January 2013: A Winter Quilt for Jennifer

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

Let's get started...

  

Hopefully by now you have received a little package of fabric from me in the mail. My idea for January is a quilt with winter motifs: snow people  snowflakes, mittens, hot cocoa, etc. These are some of the fabrics I have sent out:

(click photos to enlarge)

I also like the idea of a sampler quilt. I have used the block patterns available for free on the McCall's website: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/Block_Reference.html

I have chosen blocks from this site that have snowflake-like qualities. I would like for you to choose two of the blocks from below to make using mainly the fabrics I have sent. If needed, you can add fabrics (solids or prints) from your stash that are in keeping with winter (not Christmas). 

Colors: various shades of white (bright white, off white, white on white fabrics, cream) as well as various shades of red, green, blue, and black & white fabrics. Please pre-wash any fabrics that you use.  (For those of you in Canada and Australia, the fabrics I sent are already washed.)

It is absolutely fine, to save time, if you cut double the pieces needed 

and make two of the same block.

Please choose two from these:

 Five Star

 Five Patch Variation

 Amish Star

Aunt Dinah

 Bear's Paw Variation

 Blazing Star

 Connemara

Bridal Path Variation

Christmas Geese

Crossing Ohio

Crystals

Delectable Mountains

Dutch Rose

54-40 Fight Block

Flying Swallows

Frolic Variation

Glitter, Glitter

Lucky Clover

Modified Union Block

Morning Star

Northumberland Star

Party Hats

Pathways

Royalty Block Variation

Sawtooth Star



Square in a Star

Star Brite

Star Burst

Star in a Star

Stepping Stones

Sunrise Star

Thistle Bloom

I also like these from Cabin Fever Quilters' Guild
Fairbanks, Alaska:
Broken Star
Four Directions Star

Kaleidoscope Star

Odd Fellows Star

I have made a start with these nine blocks. If you see a block here that you also want to make, that is fine!

I am very excited about this quilt and hope that you have fun discovering some new block patterns. If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Thanks for helping me to make a colorful and happy new quilt!

xoJennifer

PS: You don't need to send any extra fabric back to me unless you don't think you would ever use it! Simply add remaining fabric to your stash.

International Stashes: End of Year Review for 2012

A big thank you to 

Katy, Meg, Amy (USA),  Amy (Canada), Shauna, Hayley, Chris, Linsay, Genevieve, and Micaela

for a fun filled year of sewing. Your ideas, contributions, and friendship have made this a successful start to the International Stashes online quilting bee and blog. 

Happy New Year to all of you!

Love, Jennifer

(Remember, you can click on photos to enlarge)

All the best and thank you again to Genevieve and Hayley who are moving on 

to other sewing adventures in 2013.

Christmas

I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas day.  Now that my kids are teenagers we have to wake them up on Christmas morning.  It is a change from the 6.00am starts that we used to have.  I think the girls were still quite excited.  Flora said she woke up at 3.00am and had a feel of her full Christmas stocking and then went back to sleep.  Once Arabella had opened up her gifts she plugged herself into the new gadget and was fairly silent for the rest of the day.  There is a 'no screens at the table' rule in our house so the Christmas lunch was chatty and funny, especially the charades game from the Christmas crackers. 
I have been meaning to add to our blog for weeks and I have never managed to get round to it.  I have made a block for the charity quilt which I'll send to Jennifer with her new January block.  I do feel a certain sense of relief now that Christmas Day has passed.  Like everyone else, I have had a head full of presents, recipes, stocking fillers, and wrapping.  Now that has all been done I feel much better.  We are going to Scotland tomorrow to spend New Year with family and once we get back I am looking forward to another great quilting year.
Happy New Year to you all,
Linsay.

Sampler squares (Amy Canada)

Now that I'm done with my quilt, whew! I feel like I can start other projects. Here are my sampler squares. I really like how the top one turned out. I can't wait to see how it all comes together!

My labor of love!

It is done! My love quilt is done, and for lack of better word... I LOVE it! It is super scrappy, rough and uneven, and suits our family perfectly. Both girls have been eyeing it for their own these past couple of days. Evie had big tears rolling her face until I explained to her that this quilting square, unlike the others I've made, is staying with us. We've put the quilt in our guest room for now. The girls are happy with that. They can visit it when they snuggle with visiting grandparents. Thank you ladies!

Katy's Blocks for Micaela

A little late to get these finished, but I had fun picking out the colours and sewing them up last night! Micaela, you're going to have such a pretty quilt! I can't wait to see it come together. My purples look a bit blue in the photo but they are really very purple...
Now on to December's block!

Blocks for Micaela from Amy in Canada

Wow!  This came together so quickly! I tried so hard to get my points to line up, but it seems to me that luck plays a big part! Ah well, one of them is perfect...

I've machine quilted my LOVE quilt and am on to the hand-stitching. It is taking a long time, but the result is beautiful! I'm hoping that my sewing to-do stays small in the next couple of weeks and I can get it done before our next quilting year begins!

Happy Holidays to you all and I look forward to hearing from you in the New Year!
xx
Amy