Winners!!!

Animal House Giveaway winners are comment numbers 84, 87 and 3.

Each winner will receive 20 five-inch squares, including at least one square of their favorite print.

 #3 - Alison likes cats on the green background.

#84 - Cathy likes the foxes.

#87 - Sheila like the cows.

Emails have been sent to the winners.  As soon as I receive the addresses, I will send out the bundles of cuteness. Thank you so much for playing.


Happy Holidays to you all!!!

Animal House and a Giveaway

The quilt was completed on Sunday but taking good pictures was a challenge due to limited daylight hours.  And then snowy or cloudy weather AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH.
I am dying to show this one.  Here is the flimsy.

A beautiful day

Here is the back story of the quilt.
You know that Angela Walters is the queen of FMQ. Since I do not FMQ, (not even to save my life), I had not dived into the pool of Angela worshippers but admired her beautiful work from the sidelines.

But when Angela Walters joined forces with Craftsy (I am an affiliate) for the Midnight Quilt Show, I could not resist her awesomeness any longer.

In May, Angela did this show - Scrappy On Point Triangle Quilt. It is a free pattern.
I did like the pattern, but it seemed incomplete.

Scrappy On Point Triangle Quilt Pattern

The blocks looked like a cute roof, but it seemed that the house was missing. Just my opinion.
Angela had built castles in the air. It was up to me to put foundations underneath. The question was who should live in that house.

Chapter challenge

About the same time, my quilt guild announced the Chapter Challenge for the next Quilt Show - A quilt with Animals.
And I had this AHA moment. I knew what I had to do. I had to take Angela's roof blocks and place them over animal houses.

OK, I did modify the pattern, so that I could use jelly roll strips for the background. 
I started with 1.5" fabric strips. Sew two together along the length. The resulting combined strip set will be 2.5" wide. Placed RST with the 2.5" white jelly roll strips and stitched on both sides to make a tube. The rest of the pattern is the same to get the roof shapes.

Strip set

Making a tube

I did that with several strip sets. Made several roof blocks.

Assembly Line

Now comes the fun part - the houses and their adorable inhabitants.

Black & White need not be boring

Foxy!!!

Scary!!!

Time to put them together!!!

So cute

Holy cow!!!

Heard the buzz?

Oh design wall!!!

Rows of houses and the quilt top comes together.

Coming together

Yes, crabs have a house too!

So cute and so cheerful. I am calling this one Animal House.

Finished Flimsy - Happy Dance

I chose a crabby fabric for the backing. Why not? Let's take the animal theme all the way.
Quilted it using my walking foot, obviously. Just lines. I believe that is breeze - Houses in the Breeze.

Finished

The bright orange binding makes everything pop and matches the backing too :-)

Orange Binding Pops

How many different animal fabrics are in there?

Did you see the hedgehogs?

Not all. But a lot of them. There are several that did not make the cut.

Owls are a hoot!

So many owls. What a hoot :-D

The cows and the monsters are my favorite. But the cats have so much attitude. Shall we say Catitude?

Under the Tree

The finished quilt measures about 44" by 61". I am that after a wash it will shrink to under 60" along the length. It needs to be under 60" to qualify for the show.

Bundle of Joy

They may not be measuring each quilt, but I'd hate it if a small technicality kept this bundle of cuteness from making it to the show.

Paul, the model

Here is a close-up of the quilting.

Walking foot quilting

Labelled

I love it!!!

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And if you love a good sale, Connecting Threads is having a sale - all solids are 40% off.
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But if you are done spending money, here is a giveaway for you.  I started this blog four years ago. I know time flies, especially since I have been having sew much fun.

To celebrate this anniversary, I will share with you my 5" squares of cute animals.  There are three prizes - 20 squares each of animal cuteness.

Sample of squares in the giveaway

If you'd like to get your hands on these adorable, darling fabrics, please leave me a comment, telling me which animal fabric is your favorite.  If you follow me, leave me a second comment telling me how you follow me.

If you are a no-reply blogger, please include your email. Or better still stop being a no-reply blogger. Here is how http://www.sewathomemummy.com/2013/01/are-you-no-reply-blogger.html

This giveaway is now closed. Winners announced here.
I will announce the three winners on Christmas Day.  
Wishing you a joyful holiday season.
I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties. See the full list on the sidebar.


This blogpost contains affiliate links.

Creature Feature etc.

Paul works in the IT industry. It means that he sits at a desk looking at a computer screen (actually three screens) all day.  What do you think he does to relax?
Plays computer games!!!

Fire-Breathing Dragon

What do I do when I get frustrated while I am working on a complicated, treacherous quilt pattern?
I make a simple quilt.

Orange Octopus

Yes, we are so different!!!


Remember Sun City. When I got extremely frustrated working on tiny blocks, I put it away and made this. Meet Creature Feature.

Creature Feature

This darling quilt (42" by 42") came together so quickly, is so bright and cheerful and it lifted me outta my funk. The best part - I completed the top in one afternoon. Hurray for simple and happy quilts. It is the popsicle of quilts.

Smiling Whales

Let me explain what I mean by Popsicle of a Quilt - Imagine, you are slaving over a three-layer chocolate cake with ganache icing (for very special guests).  But what you really want to eat is a popsicle. Get it?  It is simple and low-intensity. It hits the spot and makes you giggle like a kid. 

Puppies - Yay!!!

See this fabric with puppies.  I love this fabric. Here is a fat quarter that keeps on giving.
I used it in Homeful with great success. And also in Playschool as well as Pre-K.

Tropical Turtle

All colored strips are from Connecting Threads. Used some of them in Lickety Split.
And this orange fabric was a gift from dearest quilter buddy in Pennsylvania -  Sylvia.

from Sylvia, with love

Knowing my love for cute fabrics, she saved me two FQs of this adorable fabric.
A bunch of 5" squares and some 2.5" strips + on afternoon = Magic!!!

Jelly Fish :-)

As I was quilting this cutie patootie, I was listening to NPR and this show came up - Creature Feature.
"In this adorable rhyming game, each answer is two words: an animal, and a word that rhymes with that animal. So if we imagined a red crustacean gangster that boiled its enemies alive and served them with butter, it would be called a Lobster Mobster."

That settled it. I found the name for my little adorable quilt - Creature Feature.

Labelled!!!

Walking foot quilting using a decorative stitch that looks like Cs. Mirrored it looks like clouds.

Bright Stripes Binding

The backing is blue, cream dotty fabric.
The binding is a bright black/colorful striped fabric.  I am really loving stripes for binding. They look lovely!!!

I do not have a recipient in mind for Creature Feature but I am sure that the universe will take care of it.
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Remember my last post where I talked about Craftsy kits that were great deals etc.
Guess what? Those very kits are now FURTHER reduced.  Check them out here.


I've had my eye on this Rhoda Ruth FQ Bundle for quite some time now, but I refused to pay more than $2 per FQ. Today it is 30 FQs for just over $60. SOLD!!!

Oh, I also bought this Michael Miller Melodies FQ bundle - how rich are these colors and at $1.625 per FQ, this was impossible resist.

Do you remember the KISS tutorial? It uses 6" strips. I used Kaffe Fassett's Design Strips.  Those are now 55% off at $18.45.  That means you could make two quilt tops for just $18.45.

Pastel Strips

Jewel Strips

And if you'd rather make the KISS quilt using batiks, there is great news.  Each of these Tonga Treats 6" Strips are just $21.

Jupiter 6" Strips

Citrus Mint 6" Strips

City Lights 6" Strips

Speaking of KISS, Kat of Scrapbox Quilts made a baby bargello quilt using my tutorial. I am tickled pink!!!

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All addresses have been received from the winners of the Orphan Adoption Event. Packages going out today with the quilt top to Cindy, pens to PK, and template to Shelley.  In your packages, I have also included one small surprise item.  Exact same in each package - because I don't want any fights wherein anyone says - Why is her surprise item better than mine?
Just kidding :-D  Thank you for adopting these orphans and hope you enjoy your surprise :-)
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I made another smaller quilt.

Someone had abandoned these triangles at the free table at our Guild Meeting.

I added some green sashing, some striped border and made a small quilt top.

It is only 32" square. It will work for a newborn baby girl.  But I am going to send it to NY Sue for the Stillborn Bereavement Group.

I used this stamp fabric for backing, received with love from Jake in SC.  I am thinking of you Jake and all the wonderful things you do :-)

A muted turquoise binding completes it.

Paul: Ooh, I like that fabric with the stamps.
Preeti: I can make you another coaster from that fabric, if you want.
Paul: Can you make me a little bag?
Preeti: Like with a zipper?
Paul: Yeah.
Preeti: WHAT??? WHY???
Paul: For travel, you know, to keep little things together.
I said fine while I rolled my eyes.
I did not think that my pouch making frenzy would have a negative side effect.  Further, I did not think that guys would want a travel bag in anything other than leather or leather look-alike. Well, I stand corrected.

I guess if I am going to use him as a quilt holder upper, he needs to be compensated!!!
How do you compensate your quilt holders/models?
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Here is the fabric audition for the next project.  I need about ten fat quarters.
I am considering these Pashmina batiks from Timeless Treasures.

Pashmina Batik FQs, Grey Background

More in my next post.

I will be linking with my favorite linky parties.
I'd love to hear from you, as usual.

Hugs,
Preeti.