Frolic FUN on New Year's Eve 2019, soon-to-be 2020!

Spending New Year's Eve getting caught up on our Frolic Mystery - already up to Clue #4:

Clue #4 - Frolic Mystery

On to Clue #5:

Frolic - Clue #5 ALL cut!

Clue #5 getting paired up and ready to sew

Time to sew, Mama, SEW!

Chain piecing Clue #5

About halfway through Clue #5, hoping to finish in a few:

Halfway through Clue #5...MORE sewing/pressing needed to finish up ;-)

Time to get back to it...

Happy New Year!
~Deb

Frolic Mystery:
Introduction
Clue #1
Clue #2
Clue #3
Clue #4
Clues #5 - 8

Clue #3 of our Frolic Mystery is already HERE!

It's HERE!  We're actually up to Clue #3 of our "Frolic Mystery".

Clue #3 - Complete!

This Clue took a bit longer, since there are almost two-hundred HSTs ;-)  I decided to use one of my GO! dies to make some quick work of cutting - worked great!

Clue #3 - ALL cut out and ready to sew

The sewing was nice and steady while listening to 'Scrooged'.  One of my fav times in chain sewing is arriving at the very last unit...ahhhhh

The very last unit is stitched...Yeah!

Final confirmation - NO more HSTs left in the 'neutral' basket...Yes!

Empty basket of neutrals is Good!  (Cut a few extra blues for another project)

ALL complete and stored away 'until' time for them to come out for final assembly

Frolic - Clue #3

In between cutting & sewing, managed to finally get our family's Christmas tree up - just need a few elves to help finish hanging the ornaments & candy canes, Christmas train, and we're Golden

2019 Family Christmas Tree

Time for one last Dark Chocolate covered cherry...Mmmmm.

Secret weapons

...and now, it's snowing...Perfect!

Later,
~Deb

Frolic Mystery:
Introduction
Clue #1
Clue #2
Clue #3
Clue #4
Clues #5 - 8 

December 7, 1941 - 78 Years Later...

We Remember:

Thank You to those who sacrificed and fell on that fateful day, and those who remain.

My Best,
~Deb

Clue #2 - Frolic Mystery

This week offered a somewhat easy/Fast clue for our Frolic Mystery...Thanks, Bonnie!  For those who needed to play a little catch-up from last week's frolic-ing start ;-). this week's clue provided a wonderful opportunity.  For me, will give me some much needed time to catch-up on a few of my other holiday projects and activities!

Clue #2 of Frolic

This clue went together quickly = Fast & FUN!

Sewing those strips

Pile of strips ready to sew together

Time to cut to size:

Cutting strips to size in sets cuts cutting time in half

Bagged & tagged:

Clue #2 - bagged/tagged, ready & waiting

Next!  Dancing in the Moonlight still needs its binding/labeling, and two Veteran quilts need finished up in time to be quilted, while three Christmas quilts and two baby quilts are waiting in the wings to be quilted/bound/labeled...time to sew, Mama, sew ;-)

Later,
~Deb

Frolic Mystery:
Introduction
Clue #1
Clue #2
Clue #3
Clue #4
Clues #5 - 8

4+ Calling Birds and...a Frolic Mystery!

The annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery, "Frolic" is underway w/first Clue, which includes 4+ calling birds - at least mine does...see for yourself ;-)

Clue #1 - w/4+ Calling Birds ;-)

They could be bluebirds but...because it's the Christmas Season, I'm sticking with 'Calling Birds'.

A few of my fabrics for this Mystery - more will be added as they are 'found' during the latest 'Organization' of the fabric inventory:

"Frolic" Mystery fabrics

And while sewing, don't forget to 'twist & shout' those center intersecting seams - makes for a much flatter unit and so much easier to quilt:

Twist & Shout those center seams!

It's not too late to join in ALL this Mystery 'Frolic-ing' FUN!  All the Mystery info can be found by following this direct web link:  https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/frolic-mystery.html

'Til the next Mystery Clue:

Happy Quilting!
~Deb

Frolic Mystery:
Introduction
Clue #1
Clue #2
Clue #3
Clue #4
Clues #5 - 8

"Dancing In The Moonlight" - the Journey Continues...

This quilt has already had quite the journey in its short life.  Originally I 'thought' it was destined to be one of 'my quilts', it soon became apparent that was not to be.

"Dancing In The Moonlight" comes off the frame

Have you ever just known you were supposed to create a quilt?  And even though you kind of thought it was going to be for you, and you really liked it, events begin to transpire that soon reveal 'who' the quilt is actually supposed to be for?  That sums up this quilt's destiny so far...

Hibiscus E2E Quilting design

"Dancing In The Moonlight" Trivia

• 37.4 hours to cut out/sew together "Dancing In The Moonlight" quilt top
• 12+ hours to load on quilt frame and quilt
• Superior's Variegated Rainbows Rain forest thread in needle
• Signature Silver in bobbin
• Hibiscus Hideaway Quilting Design
• Hobbs 80/20 quilt batting
• 1.5 hours to create/embroider quilt label
• 5 hours to bind/label
• UPDATE 11/29/2019:  quilted to "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" and "A Home of Our Own"

Originally planned to be quilted over the Holidays in 2018, life and other things happened along this quilt's journey, and it ended up languishing for several months, prior to coming back through the 'quilt queue' to finally be quilted:

Hibiscus quilting

Feather/floral quilting

 The variegated thread brings an unique/additional element to this neat quilt.  Unfortunately, my camera doesn't do this thread justice - reminds me of the 'Northern Lights', really striking!

Quilting - left side

Quilting - back

Once bound/labeled, "Dancing In The Moonlight" will continue on its journey to its final destination - to the recipient who was 'always' destined to be the actual quilt owner ;-)

Hope you ALL had a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Time to bind...
~Deb

UPDATE 11/25/2019:  Binding - this is how we cut our binding ;-)

Cutting binding into multiple strips

Strips cut!

This is how we attach the binding to the quilt ;-)

Attaching binding to the perimeter of the quilt

UPDATE 12/12/2019: labeling and The Finish!

Attaching quilt label

Labelled and Finished!

"Dancing In The Moonlight" has been gifted to a very special person who it was ultimately created for...Enjoy!  (It doesn't go without notice that 'her name' is spelled exactly the same way as mine!)

Remembering our Vets on Veteran's Day

More than 75 years later:

Thank YOU.
~Deb

Harvest Hanging ;-)

This little Harvest wall hanging has languished for quite some time, waiting for me to find just the right binding and enough fabric leftovers to create hanging loops.  In fact, it was the very first quilt-type panel I quilted on 'Miss Betty 1':

1st Practice Piece - 2012!

Quilted w/simple freehand stippling, it turned out fairly well, me thinks:

Freehand Stipple quilting

The fabrics chosen for the binding were actually 'leftovers' from my brother's Tribute quilt - Bonnie Hunter's 2018 "Good Fortune" Mystery:

"Good Fortune" Mystery - ready to quilt!

Once those perfect GREEN fabrics were 'found', time to bind!

Harvest wall hanging getting bound

Applique/pen stitch works great for binding!

Harvest wall hanging finished and ready for fall in it's 'hanging' place ;-)

Harvest wall hanging

And the Harvest wreath gets a NEW place to hang on our fireplace mantle:

Harvest wreath

Speaking of Mysteries - just gathering up my fabrics for this year's "Frolic" Mystery:

"Frolic" Mystery!

"Frolic" Mystery fabrics - MANY more to add as they get 'found' amongst the stash ;-)

Time to go hunt for 'more' Frolic fabrics and finish getting that cutting station ready!  There's still plenty of time to join in ALL the Frolic Mystery FUN:  https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/frolic-mystery.html

Later,
~Deb

A Quilt Of Honor Get its Wings

Eagle wings, that is ;-)

Machine embroidering the 'Freedom Eagle'

Perched Eagle

Eagle protecting America

Embroidering this eagle 'upside down' to keep the bulk of the quilt to the outside of the embroidery field

Typically, we embroider the quilt blocks 'prior to' assembly into a quilt however, in a few situations it becomes apparent that 'something' needs to be done with basic quilt blocks:

All finished w/assembly - just needs 'something' in those cream blocks...

Because this quilt was designed and created over the weekend 'on the fly', it wasn't determined until after completion - by the choice of the 'cream' filler fabric blocks, that something was missing...embroidery might work!

'God Bless America' Eagle

Eagle in flight

Eagle Quilt Of Honor w/Wings

Time for quilting!  Will be using a quilt design with LOTS of movement to emulate the flight of an eagle w/gold quilting thread to compliment the gold that was used in the embroidery.

Once quilted/bound/labeled, this Quilt Of Honor will be Awarded to one of our Illiana area Purple Heart Veteran Pilots.

Later,
~Deb

9/11 Tribute - Never Forget

18 Years Later - Tribute to Those Who Fell:

In Honor of Those Left Behind.

My Best,

~Deb

Happy 4th of July!

America Celebrates:

Enjoy Celebrating our Country's Birthday!
~Deb

Beautiful Honorary Tribute QOV Gets Quilted in time for Easter Weekend Award

Miss Betty & I were recently chosen to quilt this stunning Honorary Tribute Quilt of Valor, in Honor of a wonderful WW II Pilot:

WW II Air Force Pilot

And the Beautiful Honorary Quilt of Valor created and awarded in his honor:

Honorary Tribute QOV

Becker's Shooting Star quilting design w/Gold 'Grain Acres' quilting thread

This gorgeous QOV was awarded Easter weekend.  It was our honor and privilege to be chosen to quilt this Honorary Tribute Quilt of Valor...Thank YOU.

Hope EVERYONE had a Wonderful Easter!
~Deb