Work in Progress Wednesday and some random stuff

My little boys are camping with their grandparents for three days.

 Love 'em, but I'm so happy to have a break!!!  The house is so quiet : )

Today I decided to try a new block.  Well it isn't quite new.  I've been collecting vintage quilting patterns and this one is from Kansas City Star newspaper, "Rose Dream" from 1930. 

I've really been inspired by a new Flickr Group - Low Volume Quilt Along.  The idea of using a more subdued palette is very appealing to me right now.  I was looking through my patterns and thought this would be the perfect one.

I'm truly in love with this block!   I've pulled a stack to make more blocks - I'd like to make an entire quilt.

So.....here is a question for you.

Would you join a Vintage Block Quilt Along hosted by me?

I would pick vintage patterns from my collection and I would provide the pattern and a tutorial.  In the case of making this block, I'd share my tips and tricks I learned while doing curved piecing.

I'm thinking at least one block a month, maybe two.

What do you think??

As far as the random stuff, I had a chance to spend some time in the garden.  A few years back we planted a few strawberry plants.  Now we have a little patch : )  The boys love to pick them.

My latest project for Fat Quarterly is finished.  Yay!!  These are just the backs of the pillows I made for the next issue.  A little teaser : )

xo

Charise

May I make something for you?

Today I received the most lovely package from Mette.

 I love notebooks - you could almost say I collect them!
 I was so thrilled to receive this package from her!! 
I follow Mette's blog - erleperle.  It is so lovely. 
A few months back she had a blog post on Crafting it Forward and I jumped at the chance to sign up.  So now it is my turn to Craft if Forward! 

 If you would like a handmade gift from me,  add a comment below.  I will make and send you a gift handmade by me to the first five interested individuals. You will receive your gift in the next nine months.  You in return upon receiving your homemade gift, create a blog post showing what you received and then ask for comments in the post with interested and willing participants.  You then have nine months to make something for the five interested individuals. 

**I'd love to make something for you.  If you are interested, please leave a comment below**

xo

Charise 

Work(s) in Progress Wednesday

Right now I have five boys at my house ages 2-8!!!!  They are actually playing quite well together!
So I'm taking a few minutes to share what I was working on before they got here : )

I finished the top for my pillow in the Pillow Talk Swap.  Hoping my partner likes it.  She wanted a shape that wasn't a square and likes linen as a background.  She gave me lots of colour choices but I went with my favorite - aqua and red.

I thought my Starburst Spools Block would be the perfect design for this project!

I've also been working on a project for the next issue of Fat Quarterly.

A little Liberty of London and 3 Sister's Etchings.....

xo
Charise

 

Fun Find

I was shopping at Joanne's today and came across the book "Sweet and Simple Patchwork Gifts".  The cover was so cute I had to take a look inside!

I was so excited to notice the same project that is in the Japanese House book I purchased on Etsy some time ago - it is the book on the top in both pics.

It is a wonderful book and has tons on cute projects!

If you don't have a Joanne's near you, you can find it on Amazon!

xo

Charise

Starburst Spools Pillow and a little Sunday night sewing

I'm not the best at finishing projects (Understatement!!) so I am ecstatic that I actually had a finsih this weekend!  I have at least 4 quilts in process, a bee block sketched, a few new paper pieced patterns started and a pillow for a pillow swap started.  But...I did finish my Starburst Spools pillow - yay!  I was inspired by Amy to try an invisible zip closure on this one.  I love that you cannot see the closure at all!  I put a lovely DS quilts floral on the back.

  I'd love to make a quilt with this pattern - eee gads, not another start : )

It was fun to come up with the quilting design for this one.  There is hand quilting around the star and echo quilting around the star and spools though I know it is a bit hard to see in the pic.

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday evening.  I'm doing a bit of sewing and this is the state of my table!  The kitchen is clean, I have three loads of laundry to fold and a check book to balance but the boys are asleep and I can sew.  I think the laundry and check book can wait until tomorrow!!

xo

Charise

Flowers in Vintage Bottles

I'm finally finished with my pattern "Flowers in Vintage Bottles"!!!  It took awhile to finish - a bit of redoing the pattern and some of the fabrics.

I love putting blossoms in found and vintage containers and this block was inspired by just that!

The pattern is available for instand download in my Craftsy shop and also in my Etsy shop!

Have a lovely Sunday!

xo

Charise