Two Sisters Traveling Stash and Surprises from Raelene

 "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."  - William Shakespeare

Today my sister at Hilachas and I are announcing the  “Two Sisters” Traveling Stash."

Why this Traveling Stash was born:

About a month ago (June 25th), Irene won Traveling Stash Box #3.  but, unfortunately, has never received it and has been unable to post the giveaway.  

So, Irene and I decided that we want to send a “Traveling Stash Box” out anyway and have filled up a new box with goodies that we hope you will like and send it to the winner of this giveaway.

Some of the goodies in the Two Sisters box:

3 Christmas fat quarters and a package of 6 fabric Christmas ribbons,

7+11fat quarters

                    

 1 charm pack of 25 cut from miscellaneous fabrics and 1 pack of 50 postage stamp squares - 2 ½ inch,

1 Book and 5 patterns:  

The Book is "Pinwheel Quilts" by Sara Moe and includes a CD

The patterns include:

1.    Decorator Pillows

2.   Barnyard Animals

3.   Christmas apron, ornaments, and potholders

4.   Baby Bibs

5.   Assorted Bags; messenger bag, backpack, hipster bag, cell phone holder, and change purse

6 yards of fabric from Connecting threads, great for a quilt backing, 

and additional yardage which varies from ½ yard to 1 7/8 yds

6 spools of thread, assorted sizes and colors,

and last but not least, 4 cushion sized panels shown below, 2 equestrian panels, one floral wreath panel and 1 golfer panel:

The usual rules will prevail for “Two Sisters” Traveling Stash:”
At this point I would like to direct you all to Irene's page at Hilachas for the sign-ups.  She has posted the rules and guidelines there.  Please note that the giveaway ends Friday, August 3rd at midnight, MDT.
In the second part of my post I want to show you some lovelies that came in the mail yesterday from my Block Swap Adventure Partner, Raelene. I have requested scrappy blocks from my swap partners....

 the block above is named "ScrapBagger" and the block below is named "Wild Zinnia"

My scrappy quilt top is well on it's way!  Thank you Raelene.  I love them!
Raelene asked for any block made with Japanese fabrics and these are the blocks I sent to her:

So you all are probably wondering how the Dresden quilting is coming along?  Well....I'm on my way up to the sewing room right now.......so TaTa for now........................

Quilting the State Bird Dresden...................

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”  ― Mahatma Gandhi

Ok I said I was going to start working on one of my UFO's..........and I am happy to report that the State Bird Dresden Quilt has come out of the UFO pile and is happily residing in the WIP category!  Can we hear a "yee-haw!" ??

I have to show you some photos of my poor little Singer wrestling with this huge quilt:

I am quilting down the seam line between the plates and around the diamond shape formed by the extra State Circles I appliqued in the corners of the dresden blocks. Once that is done I will quilt around the petals on the plate and do some FMQ on the extra circles.

I managed to get two of the center rows quilted and then pulled it down to see what the back looked like.  There were a couple of places I had to engage my seam ripper because of the puckers and then I pulled the whole thing back down on the floor to re-pin in from the back when I came up with a fabulous idea:  Call my sister to see if she was available to help me with the re-pin.
Irene just got back from a two-week trip to see her eldest son and his family so she had nothing better to do than help me out, right?  (She can unpack and do all that boring stuff later).............. besides that we had some catching up to do...........I love when we get together after one or the other of us has been gone for awhile because neither one of us can get a word in edgewise..........
we also shared a couple of glasses of wine, some new FQ's that each of us had gotten and swapped some postage stamp patches then got the quilt ready for me to tackle again tomorrow...............and all is well with the world............
I will show you my progress tomorrow..........Ta-Ta for now!

 

One Flower Wednesday.....ON TIME! Take a peek at the Emerald City Palace.......

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."  - William James

Oh My Gosh..........making this flower was Sooooooo scary!  I had been thinking about this for awhile..........Irene bought me a Wizard of Oz Panel awhile back and I have been cutting pieces out of it for my other Oz flowers but I had just about convinced myself that I was just going to cut out the whole Emerald City Palace and applique it because I was afraid I couldn't fussy cut it without running out of all the print I needed...........there were 3 prints of the Palace on the run and it was so scary trying to decide where to make the cuts and I used every bit of the three prints.......
but I am so happy to report that, "Ta-da" ......I didn't mess up and I just LOVE the way this flower turned out............

Here it is on an emerald batik background and the next photo is on the yellow brick road fabric.....

This will go near the top right side of the hanging after the poppy fields and talking tree forest...............and probably near one end of the rainbow................I have to confess that I couldn't stop thinking about it and I actually got this finished on Friday.......I was so happy to think "I already have my flower done for next week!" And not only that, but now that I won't be fretting about what I'm going to make maybe I can actually finish one of my UFO's..........(well it is a lofty goal but I'll give it a try)........
But back to the hexagon flowers..........please don't forget to check out the other flowers growing at Karen's garden on her One Flower Wednesday Page............I'm going there now.......TTFN.............

One Flower Wednesday....Unclear on the Concept??

"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done." - Lucille Ball

So here I am............late again for One Flower Wednesday.....and I have to ask myself......"Am I unclear on the concept??"...........Nah!!....just getting to the place on my Oz hanging where I'm not sure what colors to put together for the hexagon flowers...........I know that I want to kind of blend in from the Sepia tones in the Kansas side to the rainbow colors of the Oz side and I am at that point of trying to decide................
so anyway I made several sepia colored petals and also some more Kansas character petals that I think I'm going to have to decide about once I get even more petals done.............here is what I did yesterday...

 I actually have the tornado on the sepia tone fabric but it is too small so I am going to "construct" one instead...I think the 3 near the middle of this photo are sort of heading towards that goal.........the 12 petals on the upper right side have gold flecks in them which will work in my transition from the Kansas side to the Oz side......and the Kansas characters will fit somewhere once I start laying out the whole hanging.........can you all see the witch flying on her broom in the petal above and to the right of the Dorothy and Toto petals??

I also worked a little on the rainbow transition from the Kansas side to the Oz side and just laid out a few petals and flowers to get an idea of how it might look:

 I have some more batik colors which I think will work to blend from the sepia to grey/green to blue.........so there is my "One Flower Wednesday" contribution for this week............did you all drop in on Karen's garden this week?  Click HERE to go there and see more beautiful flowers............. and as always......"TaTa for Now"........see you next time..............

I have caught the "Bug"..............

"To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best."  - Margaret Thatcher



Yes..........you read that right............I am afflicted...........got it bad too..........I caught it from you, my blogging friends..........it seems to be an illness that is easily transmitted from one blog to another..............I have a stash full of fabulous fabrics that never seem to be "right" when I have a project to make

I have FQ's in the top two rows and yardage in the bottom........just not right.....

even in my backing fabrics.....the right thing isn't there.......

sometimes I forget about the drawer where I have all that black and white and gray fabric for that Plus quilt I'm planning to make.............is the fabric I'm looking for there....or maybe with my pretty blue fabric stash below????

ahhh.........look at those glorious blues for that peacock wall hanging I'm going to make one of these days............nope....not there either...

......oh wait....what about those two layer cake stacks I have stored above my Christmas fabric and solids?...................nope...it isn't there either..........


........so you understand that I "Must" go to the fabric store and find the perfect color, the motif that is exactly right..........and while I'm there I just happen to see something else that is on sale so this illness manifests its symptoms by telling me that it is only right that I get this fabric since it is on sale...............the affliction doesn't stop there.........I get online and see the fabric line I have been coveting for months.......it is about to be discontinued and may be gone forever.......and the "Bug" says to me that if I don't get it now I may never see it again..............
Yes, my friends...............the Bug  "MADE ME" buy a charm pack and a honey bun of Fairy Tale friends by American Jane.......

I found the most fabulous pattern for a quilt made with a block called "Converging Corners".........sort of a court-house block which I plan to use the Fairy Tale Friends on:

Yes, I know I still have to finish those UFO's.......the Dresden State Bird Quilt and the Little Apples Quilt my Crazy quilt..............ummmmmm while I'm on the subject............did I tell you about this bug I caught that causes you to grow bunches of UFO's????

Well I'm out of time right now but I will tell you about it next time........TaTa for now..........

3 Flower Friday? Or the Rainbow that nearly ate my lunch......

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." -Zig Ziglar
   Oh my goodness.............I have been trying to get my Oz Flower for One Flower Wednesday posted for 3 days now and I am so sick and tired of working on relieved to have something to show you today.

I have always known that there would be a rainbow in the Oz Hanging but I hadn't really stopped to formulate exactly how I would do it with hexagon flowers.  I knew I didn't have anything in my stash that would work and when I called the closest LFS they told me they had no rainbow fabric.  I did remember that they had some in a tie-dye that I had used before so I went and bought some but.........ummmmm...........that didn't work.......couldn't figure out how I could make this look like a rainbow..........

 so after realizing that I would just have to miss posting on Wednesday,  I slept on it and then went to the LFS that was across town on Thursday and found the perfect rainbow fabric!  (By the way.......I still fiddled with other ideas on Wednesday trying to come up with a post but, alas....my mind couldn't stop thinking about the rainbow)...........
My first hexies looked like this and I thought I would just arc them over to form a rainbow shape...........

 that probably would have worked but I was still not really happy with it so instead I spent hours fussy cutting and seaming and came up with this:

 .........each petal is fussy cut and some of the petals are seamed with part sky and the other part rainbow.....

when they all go together it looks like this:

I will have to do some creative placement to get the arc to be a little smoother and I still have probably three more full flowers to go....this side will go over the oz side and there will also be part of the rainbow on the Kansas side..............but I'm not ready for that yet..........next week I will try to skate by OFW with something easier....................Ta-Ta for now................

Oh....did you all remember to check out the other flowers at Karen's One Flower Wednesday garden???
 

OFW-more Yellow Brick Road, Happy Birthday USA & Sisters bearing Gifts..............

In a chariot of light from the region of the day,

The Goddess of Liberty came

She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,

the plant she named Liberty Tree.

-Thomas Paine

Happy Birthday USA!

Every year on 4th of July and Christmas my family (sibs and their growing families) all try to meet at Mom and Dad's house.  As you know, when families grow and begin to move further away, this is not always possible.  Throw in a monkey wrench like this year with the 4th of July falling in the middle of the week, sometimes our usual traditions are thrown awry.

This year part of the family was able to go home at the beginning of the week and another part towards the last.  I belong to the second part of the week and will be driving home late today or early tomorrow.  My children and grandchildren will all be there tomorrow.

Every week Karen has an open garden for us to post our flowers at "One Flower Wednesday" Just click on the link to see everything for this week...........and here is my flower for the week...........another cameo of Toto----this time in the yellow brick road.  Notice the background fabric which reads, "There's No Place Like Home"...........I'm still not sure of how I will use this fabric but I will place it on the Kansas side of the wall hanging.

I do have several yellow brick road flowers I will need to make.  My idea is that part of the yellow brick road will fade into the poppy fields something like this:

 My Sis just came home from a visit with her Daughter, Grandson, and SIL in California and came home bearing gifts........she brought me these red and gold FQ in a country theme.....there are roosters and hearts and stars and sunflowers.......can you say "Mug Rugs"???  I can see several!  Thanks, Irene.

 She also brought me some Asian print FQ's to go with some Geisha fabric I had just added to my stash........and ummmm...well, I "made" her give me a couple of other pieces from her stash.......Well you know I am "the little sister" after all.....just saying.............

 

Ok now that I have dutifully posted my OFW hexie I am off to pack an overnight bag for my trip.......I hope all of you, my USA friends have a safe holiday and all my non-American friends..... just be safe!


TaTa for now........................