New Blog Hop: Strip Quilt Secrets

Have you heard about Diane Knott’s new book, Strip Quilt Secrets?  If not, well here's your chance!  She's having a blog hop and we're all invited!

I'm scheduled on Tuesday and I'm starting the weekend out right, by playing in my scrappy strip bins to see what I can come up with using Diane's tips and tricks for her latest designs.  I can't wait to share what I come up with!

Here’s the schedule for the blog hop:

Friday January 4 – C&T

Saturday January 5 – Tanya

Sunday January 6 – Val

Monday January 7 – Lori

Tuesday January 8 – Heather <= That's ME!!!

Wednesday January 9 – Audrey

Thursday January 10 – Susan

Here's the really fun part...All U.S. residents are invited to visit each site during the blog hop and comment/apply for a chance to win a signed copy of the book!  If' you're not living here in the U.S., please follow along anyway because there are some really fun quilts and amazing ideas that will be shared, I'm sure!

Diane has already made several posts about the 5 Techniques she highlights in the book and has started the blog hop off right with tons of amazing pictures of her quilts!  Go get a sneak peek of everything that is happening over on her website:  Butterfly Threads Quilting.  

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge Week #15

Once again, I'm playing catch up on Suzn Quilts' Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge.  I'm all caught up now, so over the next few days, I'll be posting the challenge steps I've been behind on.

So week #15 was churn dash blocks.  

 We were to use 3 of the Dresden plates from week #14 and build a churn dash block around them!

 They're so pretty!

3 Dresden Churn Dash Blocks!

I'm really loving working with this fabric line...I just wish there were more "color" fabrics.  There must be just as many neutral fabrics as all of the red, blue and brown fabrics combined together.  It does make for more difficult fabric selection, but this IS a challenge and I shall persevere!

DQWC Weeks #1-15

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

The Splendid Sampler 2 - the beginning

Have you been participating in The Splendid Sampler 2 Sew Along?  Pat Sloan and friends have done it again...they came together to compile some of the cutest blocks, with the most techniques, to make the most adorable sampler quilt!

I've been working on this quilt for about a month, now, and I've finally gotten all 100 of the blocks made.  Over the next 5 days, I'll share photos of my blocks.  Here are the first 20 for today!

The Splendid Sampler 2 book is laid out by technique for the most part.  The majority of the beginning blocks are all simply machine pieced (some with many, many more pieces than others)!

As the book goes on, more intricate designs are revealed like the faux cathedral window block below.

That's it for today.  Come back tomorrow to see 20 more blocks!  Now I'm off to start cutting the fabric strips for the sashings.  I plan to set them using the A Splendid Quilt Setting, offered as a free pattern online HERE.

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge Week #14

This week, we got a lot more practice making Tiny Dresdens in Suzn Quilts' Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge.  No blocks were made this week, just little bitty Dresden plates.

7 Tiny Dresdens

The challenge of this project, at this point, is going to be finding enough fabric to complete the larger blocks in the "chunks" left from the original FQs.  Some of the remaining blocks will require more of a single fabric than I have left in several of the pieces.  This may get interesting!  I've noticed that some of the participants have started strategically cutting for upcoming blocks - I'm guessing that's because they are feeling the same way.  Oh well!  That's the challenge and the fun of following along!  

DQWQAC Weeks #1-14

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge Week #13

I'm still playing catch up with Suzn Quilts' Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt-Along Challenge.  Here are my blocks for week #13.

I love making these Mini Dresden blocks - almost double the size of the Tiny Dresdens with a smaller center opening in proportion, so there's plenty of wiggle room for the center circle to cover!

Ick!  That looks kinda green!  I promise, there's no green in this quilt top!  This photo should show a lovely harvest gold background...grrr....amateur computer photography!?!?!?

2 Mini Dresden blocks

Here both are together for the last time...the couple will be seperated in the final quilt top (hehe), just like this...

Dresden Quilt Workshop Challenge Weeks #1-13

I'm off to make a bunch of Tiny Dresden plates for week #14's clue...more fabric color/pattern challenges ahead!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather