Black Is The New Redwork

My Redwork Club is going all out for Halloween this year.  Our main project is a quilt by Bobbie G. Designs, Halloween Fun.  This quilt combines embroidery and pieced blocks which will make a nice wall hanging.

The next block needed to be transfer to the fabric but when tracing the pattern of the first block using the Frixion pen, my markings started to fade and disappear.  It took a few moments before it dawned that my light box was heating up the ink making it do its thang. Well, last night, I spotted on my patio this little outdoor table with its glass top and thought...

problem solved!

In addition to the quilt,  

I am using up my scraps with these freebies and of course, it never fails, I ran out of the orange print, so I made do with another piece (bottom left corner). 

This little cutie pie witch is offered free of charge from Quixotic Pixels. 

I love the ruby red slippers from Wizard Of Oz, so her shoes got the bling treatment.  This was my first time using a metallic embroidery floss and boy, was it sort of difficult to pull through the linen.  I wonder if cotton is easier.  Not quite the effect I was going for--I wanted them to really BLING--guess I should have filled them in. Oh, well!

Our January meeting was held at our fearless leader's home, Lorene (A Little Bit of Lorene) and she really welcomed us with a wonderful lunch and a cute little project to work on.  We had no idea what we would be making from than the list of supplies we were to bring.  This whimsical spider is a quilt-as-you-go and we got it done that afternoon.  I'm using mine as a sort of placemat/doily/thingamajig.

I like to watch  American Restoration and Pawn Stars.  They have a lot of interesting stuff come their way but the other night on Pawn Stars a man brought in a swatch of fabric that was believed to be from Harrison's presidential campaign. 

 It looked to good to be true, like a piece of repro but later was determined to be the real deal.  Just got me thinking about how historians test for the authentic when there is such good reproduction fabric.

LOVE, Love, love!

You know I love you!  And there would have to be a pretty darn good reason to be away from you so long.  Well, my Civil War Quilt blocks have consumed all my time in the sewing room and have left little space for anything else.  But I am happy to say the top is completely sashed and now I just have to select the fabric for the border.

I love how it turned out!  It makes me happy to look at it.  I see the work but I also see the joy of the labor.  The corner blocks are the Shields that really help unify the troops.  The sashing, too, solidified it as a whole unit.  The blue print in the sashing comes from the new line by Barbara Brackman, 1862 Battle Hymn.

I found the perfect red and white stripe which complemented the stars perfectly.  I am on a roll.  The border will most likely come from 1862 Battle Hymn.  I had already purchased a layer cake of it when it came out and I've been auditioning which print I might like to use.  The choices are narrowed down to a larger print with black in it.  I'm using this quilt on my bed so I'm going to have a nice big border. 

So, did y'all have a wonderful Valentine's Day?  A lot of love around here and not just for the above quilt.  My sweetie did get some attention, too.  He's so cute.  He notices when I don't blog and tells me to make sure I do what I enjoy.  Smart man, because I have a whole lotta blogging to do.

Trying to spread the love...

My State Flower Quilt: Alabama

I do believe I will be doing more embroidery than quilting in 2012 but don't quote just yet.  Actually the embroidery projects I'm doing are a combination. Quilt and embroider does make a cute couple.  They complement each other and in having both of them, I am forever with a project in hand.

I like the idea of pre-sashing, too.  This will give me the satisfaction of seeing the quilt come together and having it less likely end up as a UFO.  Guess I should get some ideas before too long. 

I have yet to sit down and practice with my free motion quilting challenge.  I enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing.  My friend, Lorene, who leads our Redwork Club, sent me a link to Free 2012 BOMs.  There are so many of them it is impossible to do them all but it is wonderful seeing them all in a list.

My morning is waning fast and I have a few places to run to.  Catch y'all later!