Polar Nights ~ Northern Lights

In July of 2024, my husband and I went on an Arctic Expedition cruise to Svalbard. It was a once-in-a-liftime adventure! We went with a group of folks from the US that was offered by the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. There were people from other countries on the cruise. We made new friends! We saw walrus, reindeer, lots of birds and of course, Polar Bears. In July, that far north, it is always daylight. But there is a reason for my blog title....

Fast forward to January, 2025 and I was reading one of the quilt blogs I follow Quiet Play Designs. Kristy had just shared a new pattern called Arctic Winter. It is a paper pieced pattern of a polar bear. Well, I just had to have that pattern!! Part of the pattern has wintery trees as part of the design, but I wanted to make it look more like northern lights surrounding the polar bear. I was going through my stash and found a fat quarter of fabric that looked like northern lights. It was EGGPLANT - Sky Earth Ombré by Jennifer Sampou -AJSD21047 Score!! I didn't have enough to make the whole pattern, so I ordered half metre each of the Eggplant and Amethyst. I had to order from a shop in Australia, so it took awhile for it to arrive. Brenda was really nice to work with! I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make it look like northern lights until November 11, 2025 when the heavens opened up and displayed the best show ever!!

And, last week I finished the wall hanging!! I used the Eggplant on the front and the Amethyst on the back. What do you think?

Squirrel Chase - Mystery Bonus Challenge - Project Quilting

Hello! I decided to participate in a quilt challenge. This one was announced on December 22, 2024 by the Project Quilting ladies. The challenge that caught my eye was the Project QUILTING 2025 Mystery BONUS Challenge – This or That. What caught my eye was the squirrel fabric. When this was announced we were being inundated with about a dozen squirrels all chasing each other around the yard and it was getting kind of creepy when you see this. They move really fast chasing each other in a line, over rocks and logs, through the trees. So, I thought this fabric was appropriate!

I selected the Kim Bundle as I have admired her "out of the box" ideas on some of her quilts. That is for another post! I placed the order with Blue Bar Quilts as we live near Madison and thought it would save on shipping. The challenge started on January 5, 2025 and the bundle was available for pickup before that. My DH was able to pick up the bundle for me as he was near the BBQ shop before Jan 5th.

When I opened the package and laid out the fabrics I knew I had to come up with a scrappy pattern to use all these fabrics. To be honest, they were fabrics I would not have selected, but that was part of the challenge!!

Last year, I had purchased the Blog Hop 2024 Set of Cards from Villa Rosa Designs and Gypsy was one of them. I had initially misread the Challenge rules thinking that the size of the project had to be 120" perimeter. (It has to be no less than 120" *sigh*)

Well, this pattern finishes at either 162" or 206" perimeter. So I asked DH - mathematical/physics genius, to rework the size of the pieces to get the quilt top to finish at 120".

I also asked him to pick which fabrics to piece since he also loves to do puzzles and now he is also invested interested in this project! I labeled the different fabrics and let him decide. What fun having DH involved in my hobby!! :)

Off to work following the plan! It was fun to see how he paired the fabrics and I just sewed them together. The other thing I did was to turn each of the squirrel pieces to flow in a different direction to look like they were chasing each other.

I needed to add a couple of borders to get it to the 120" dimension. Then I reread the challenge rules and saw the "no less" than 120". Phew, I have some wiggle room!

I used the remaining strips of fabric for the back using a backsplash or subway tiles type pattern. I had to use a leftover strip I had in my stash from another project and it fit perfectly. I still had leftover strips and used them as the binding. I finished the project on March 12th! I'll check with Blue Bar Quilts to see if they want it for part of their exhibit in May! Thanks Kim, Trish and the folks at Blue Bar Quilts!

The End!!

Lava Lampalong sponsored by Molli Sparkles - Finish!

Ta-Da!! A finish. This was fun! I do like paper piecing, within reason. :) Thank you Molli Sparkles! Also, a big thank you to Mr. Kendall Taylor who made a nice video showing how to make the block. All hung up next to the VW Van I made in 2020.

All together now - feelin' groovy!

Sew Inspired -1

 Okay, that was a long time.  I thought I would write a couple of posts about all the inspiration I have had from our fellow quilters and give a shout-out to them!  I'll probably do this in several posts.

First up, Michelle from Bolt to Beauty posted about beautiful things she likes and did not make herself.  One of her questions was about pin cushions.

A  couple of years ago, Daryl over at Patchouli Moon wrote about using a planter for a pin cushion.  That gave me an idea to use the used wool dryer balls I had laying around.

Pin Cushion Collection

I now keep my eyes open for interesting little planters that the wool ball would fit in.  For the planter on the left, I had to take some of the wool off, but it was kind of falling apart already.

These are so much fun to find and make.  I also purchased a box of 6 colored dryer balls from Walmart to replace the used ones and to possibly use in the planter.

One can never have enough pin cushions!  Have fun!

Deb

Best Intentions

Well!! My New Year's Eve resolution was to start blogging more regularly about my projects and such.  But then we all know what happened!

I will start with the project I finished today and then try to back fill the other projects that I have worked on the past 6 months.

I have been making masks for my husband and myself and a couple of other folks (more about those later).

This project I made 2 masks for the lady that does my pedicures because I found the PERFECT fabric for her and I couldn't resist.  Then I noticed that I had some extra fabric and wanted to make a little basket as well.

The masks are the same with the regular nail polish pattern on one side and the crazy nail polish on the other side.  They are reversible and I used different colored bias tape to make them different.  I special ordered the fabric from Spoonflower.  I didn't realize that each order is custom made and that it is digitally printed on the fabric.  It seems nicely done, though.

Masks and WeeBoxyBasket

Yesterday, I was lucky to find a cute pattern by Laura C at SweetCinnamonRoses for her Wee Boxy Basket pattern.  It took me less than 2 hours to make the small basket and it is SO cute.

Small WeeBoxyBasket

Inside the WeeBoxyBasket

It finishes about 3"x 3".

Dusting off the cobwebs!

Hello and welcome!  

I have taken this blog out of the moth balls and dusted it off.  

I started this blog working with my mother on a Janet Stone BOM in 2014.  My mom made 2 of these quilts and I am part of the way done.  Mom passed away in 2015.

One of my goals for 2020 is to finish this quilt this year.  Another one of my goals is to start winding down working and start sewing and quilting more and blogging about it.  I have been reading blogs from other, inspiring, quilters and I want to be part of the community.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Letters H & I are done!!

I've been a bit busy the last couple of weeks.  I finally had a chance to work on my quilt.

Last weekend I cut out everything for the letters H, I, E & J.  I was able to finish H & I yesterday.  I then sashed them together.  What do you think?

All together!