Category Archives: Blog Hop

Twin Size Quilts & a Winner

Posted on January 27, 2020 by heARTs Creations

Each year at the Quilt & Sew-in Retreats, the retreaters sew blocks that are then put together for Hospice quilts. This spring, however we’ll be putting twin size quilt tops together for another great cause – Snuggled in Hope Quilts. They accept quilt tops for volunteers to quilt and/or tie and bind. The quilts are then sent to Flying Horse Farms, which is a camp in Mt. Gilead, Ohio for children with serious illnesses and is part of Paul Newman’s Serious Fun Network Camps. Thank you to Kayla, a beautiful young woman who attends the Quilt & Sew-In Retreats for this wonderful suggestion.

A real bonus to donating to this cause is that the quilts do not need to be finished! I know many quilters have twin size quilt tops in their stash that may never be quilted – please consider this donation avenue!

The above quilt top will be accompanied by the backing and binding fabric below thanks to the maker of the quilt top.

Winter Blues Blog Hop – thank you to all who hopped along with the Winter Blues. Your kind and uplifting comments were so very much appreciated! Congrats to comenter #28, Dixie, for winning the Batik Surprise.

Winter isn’t over yet! May you spend many happy hours keeping warm while creating!

Lots of Color Scrappy Strips

Posted on January 16, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Two packs of bright narrow strips (Windham Foundation) turned into lots of sewing fun. What a joy to work with such bright prints! I decided to work with columns of the strips and added a wider black and white piece every so often. No real plan here, just fun sewing. This wasn’t going to be very big and when I finished this much, I took a picture. Oh dear, much too busy. It was almost enough for me to put aside but I knew if I did that it might not see the light of day for a long, long time.

So…I added black borders. It really contained it and I liked it! More strip sewing to add outer borders and then more black borders. Now I really like this little quilt. I even quilted it right away which is SO not my MO. I used a variegated thread and did large wavy lines. I like the way the colors of the thread show on the black fabric.

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I used a bright flowery fabric for the backing to compliment the front of the quilt.

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Love having a finish in January! One more WIP to check off my list.

Be sure to visit the Island Batik Blog Hop – Great Projects & Giveaways!

getaway blog hop

Linking up with:

WIPS on Wednesdays, Linky Tuesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday

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Posted in Art, block pattern, Blog Hop, Color, Fabric, Island Batiks, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting and tagged Color, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Flannel Finish

Posted on January 14, 2019 by heARTs Creations

The first Hospice quilt of the year is done! It’s such a happy and bright quilt and the flannel is so warm and cozy. This was such an easy finish as the donated blocks had been quilted onto batting. I squared the blocks, pieced them, backed and did simple quilting along the seam lines and then diagonally.

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I’m thrilled to have a Hospice finish this early in the year. My gratitude to the donor for all the hours of work that were put into the blocks before they were sent to me. Our little quilting group meets this week and I can’t wait to share all the other projects that were donated over the last several months.

Don’t forget to visit the Island Batik blog hop – great projects and giveaways! My turn will be on January 28.

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Posted in block pattern, Blog Hop, charity quilts, Color, Island Batiks, Quilting and tagged Charity, Patterns, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Getaway Blog Hop!

Posted on January 6, 2019 by heARTs Creations

getaway blog hop

What a great way to start off the New Year – an Island Batik Blog Hop featuring creations by the 2018 Island Batik Ambassadors using Island Batik’s newest collections. And there will be giveaways!

I had the great pleasure of using French Blue – a truly beautiful collection! See…

There were 20 half yards and I had a lot of fun planning, cutting and sewing, sewing, sewing! But…you’ll have to wait until January 28 to see my creation. In the meantime, check out all the eye candy the other IB ambassadors have for you. AND – some will have give-aways!

Getaway Blog Hop Schedule

WEEK 1

Monday, January 7 – Crystal Ball

Maryellen McAuliffe –Mary Mack’s Blog
Sandra Walker- mmm! quilts

Tuesday, January 8 – Ditty

Stephanie Jacobson –Steph Jacobson Designs
Michelle Roberts- Creative Blonde

WEEK 2

Monday, January 14 – Fortune Teller

Sarah Goer –Sarah Goer Quilts
Sherry Shish –Powered by Quilting
Jennifer Fulton –The Inquiring Quilter

Tuesday, January 15 – Gypsy Rose

Jen Strauser –Dizzy Quilter
Janet Yamamoto- Whispers of Yore

Wednesday, January 16 – Paisley Park

Dione Gardner-Stephen- Clever Chameleon
Nancy Scott –Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, January 17 – Soul Song

Carole Lyles Shaw- Carol Lyles Shaw
Toby Lischko –Gateway Quilts & Stuff

Friday, January 18 – Twilight Chic

Jackie OBrien –If These Threads Could Talk
Tina Dillard- Quilting Affection

WEEK 3

Monday, January 21 – Winter Park

Jennifer Thomas- Curlicue Creations
Anita Skjellanger- Quilt In a Not Shell

Tuesday, January 22 – Bazaar

Karen Overton- The Quilt Rambler
Alison Vermilya- Little Bunny Quilts
Turid Bakken- Den syende himmel

Wednesday, January 23 – Blossom

Karen Neary –Sew Karen-ly Created
Leanne Parsons –Devoted Quilter

Thursday, January 24 – Boho

Laura Piland- Slice of Pi Quilts
Suzy Webster- Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Myra Barnes- Busy Hands Quilts

Friday, January 25 – Brookview

Vicki Schlimmer –Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Amy Warner –Sew Incredibly Crazy

WEEK 4

Monday, January 28 – French Blue

Pamela Boatright –PamelaQuilts
Joyce Mullis –HeARTs Creations – THAT’S ME!

Tuesday, January 29 – Midsummer Night

Kathleen McCormick –Kathleen McMusing
Connie Kauffman – Kauffman Designs

Wednesday, January 30 – Oh Deer

Jen Shaffer- Patterns by Jen
Jeanette Jones –Inchworm Fabrics

Thursday, January 31 – Snow Berry

Sally Mannke –Sally Manke Fiber Artist
Joan Kawano –Moosestash Quilting

Friday, February 1 – Candy Cane Lane and Icicle

Icicle
Terri Vanden Bosch – Meanderings along Lizard Creek
Anne Wiens –Sweetgrass Creative Designs
Candy Cane Lane
Mania Hatziioannidi –Mania For Quilts
Barbara Gaddy –Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

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Posted in Art, Blog Hop, Color, Give Away, Island Batiks, Projects, Quilting and tagged projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Love the Birds – Great Outdoors Blog Hop and Giveaway

Posted on September 4, 2018 by heARTs Creations

An Island Batik Adventure

“The Great Outdoors” – what a broad subject! Hubby and I do love the great outdoors. we walk, hike, bike ride, and kayak. The heat of the summer, however, doesn’t agree with us for such activities and we do spend a great deal of time on our screened porch enjoying the great outdoors of our yard. We have lots of plantings, live among the trees and have a LOT of birdhouses. Several bird couples have moved in at different times this season, had babies and have now relocated. Several bird feeders and a bird bath keep the winged activity going quite strong. We even have owls and hawks – oh my! My decision for this challenge was made when I went through my pattern bin (yes, a bin full of patterns!) and revisited this cute birdhouse and bird wall quilt design, Remembering Annabelle by Bloom Creek.

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The collection of batiks that Island Batik provided for this project is Whatnot. Such amazing fun colors to work with!

Whatnot

I did not follow the pattern exactly. I added the suns in each of the corners. I thought the black and white checked border really helped to set off the whole design.

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The center of the pattern had words. I chose, instead to add a butterfly. At that point I was not wanting to do any more applique, so I cut a square, starched it heavily and found an origami tutorial for folding a butterfly. It worked! The first one was too large for the center, so I perched him in one corner and did a second, smaller one to add to the center.

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The end of this fun and talent packed blog hop comes to an end today. There’s still time to visit the other blogs, enter their giveaways and to enter the Island Batik giveaway below. Now for heARTs Creations giveaway! – 1 fat quarter and 7 fat eighths. All you need do is leave a comment telling me what you like about the Great Outdoors. Please note, I will need to contact the randomly chosen winner by email and this giveaway is for US addresses only. Winner will be announced Sunday, September 9.

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Monday, August 6 – All A Flutter – Yellow Cat Quilt Designs, Creative Blonde

Tuesday, August 7 – Birds N’ Bees – Ark Angel Creations, Patterns By Jen

Wednesday, August 8 – Canterbury Manor – Sally Manke, Powered By Quilting

Thursday, August 9 – Eclectic Garden – Desert Bloom Quilting, Sew Karen-ly Created

Friday, August 10 – Vintage Morris – MooseStash Quilting, Devoted Quilter

Monday, August 13 – Safari – Sew Incredibly Crazy, SweetGrass Designs

Tuesday, August 14 – Spring Blossoms – Mary Mack Made Mine, If These Threads Could Talk

Wednesday, August 15 – Victoria and Albert – Bejeweled Quilts, Clever Chameleon

Thursday, August 16 – Wild Things – Freemotion By The River, Kauffman Designs

Friday, August 17 – Petting Zoo – Den Syende Himmel, Sarah Goer Quilts

Monday, August 20 – Ocean Odyssey – Gateway Quilts, The Quilt Rambler

Tuesday, August 21 – British Rose – Busy Hands Quilts, Mania for Quilts

Wednesday, August 22 – Dear William – The Inquiring Quilter, MMM Quilts, Living Water Quilter

Thursday, August 23 – Dragonfly Dreams – Inchworm Fabrics, BeaQuilter

Friday, August 24 – Fur-ocious Friends – Quilting Affection Designs, Dizzy Quilter

Monday, August 27 – Globetrotter – Pamela Quilts, Curliecue Creations

Tuesday, August 28 – Jungle Cruise – Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting, Little Bunny Quilts

Wednesday, August 29 – Lavendula – Carole Lyles Shaw, Masterpiece Quilting

Thursday, August 30 – London Calling – Quilt in a Not-Shell, Lizard Creek Quilting

Friday, August 31 – Spirit Rhythm – Steph Jacobson, Whispers of Yore

Monday, September 3 – Sweet Tweets – Kathleen McMusing, Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Tuesday, September 4 – Whatnot – heARTS Creations, Me!; Slice of Pi Quilts

Linking up with WIPS on Wednesdays, Needle & Thread Thursday

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Posted in Applique, Art, Blog Hop, Color, Fabric, Give Away, Hexagons, Island Batiks, Modern Quilting, Pattern, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting and tagged Color, Patterns, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Yup – It’s September!

Posted on August 31, 2018 by heARTs Creations

Looking at my August listing, you might wonder – “what have you been doing?” My Island Batik January project is now a flimsy. The quilting won’t be happening right away. It feels so good to be so very close to completing the year! Don’t forget to stop by on Tuesday, September 4, for my Great Outdoor project for the IB Blog Hop and a giveaway!

Two quilts came back from the long arm professional. I so want to trim and bind them but there just hasn’t been a chance to do that. We were in Chincoteague, Virginia for 5 days. The weather was perfect, the national park was perfect, the beach was perfect and visiting with a friend was perfect. Did I mention it was perfect?!

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There’s always Hospice quilts to work on. Here are two flimsies with the backings. The plan is to get these quilted in the coming week. Both would be suitable for male patients whereas most of the quilts are geared for women. The blocks of the above flimsy were pieced at the Spring Quilt and Sew-In and then I pieced the blocks.

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The flannel was another donation from Laurie J who has been so generous. When I examined this quilt top, an alarm went off. Remember my lesson learned here? I just knew that deep burgundy would run and so it did. Here are the color catchers! The third color catcher came out white so the quilt is now good to go.

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My current absolute goal is to get caught up on “have to’s” by the end of September and then dive into my “want to’s.” Can I do it? We’ll see!

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Posted in Blog Hop, charity quilts, Color, Fabric, Give Away, Island Batiks, Projects, Quilting and tagged Charity, Color, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Toppers & Runners

Posted on August 12, 2018 by heARTs Creations

A friend of mine’s church which was founded in 1765, is having a special breakfast honoring the patriots of the American Revolutionary War. She somehow got volunteered to make 12 table toppers and 3 table runners. Although an amazing seamstress, quilting is not her thing. I was glad to help! We recently got together for about 3 hours. So glad she was all about keeping it simple, simple, simple. I cut, she sewed.

As you can see, these table toppers are very simple. I did need to do a few after she left because I just didn’t want to leave it to another day. The runners are simple too.

We’ll get together again in a few weeks to add batting and backing. It’s been decided to do them envelope style and not do bindings. Oh…I like that idea very much! These should look very patriotic when set out at the tables. The best part? Working with a friend and catching up!

Don’t forget the Island Batik Great Outdoors Blog Hop!

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Posted in block pattern, Blog Hop, charity quilts, Color, Fabric, Island Batiks, Patriotic, Projects, Quilting, Red, White & Blue and tagged Charity, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Box Two Reveal and a Winner!

Posted on July 11, 2018 by heARTs Creations

An Island Batik Adventure

Woo Hoo! Box two has arrived. I made room in one of my batik bins for the arrival of the Island Batik shipment. Uh Oh…didn’t make enough room! Here is the box:

This is one BIG box!!

Lots of beauties and much needed blue for my October project. not one, but two packs of ten inch squares! Batting, especially of such quality and large size, is a huge bonus – thank you Hobbs! Never do I tire of getting more thread – thank you Aurifil! Surprise – yes, I peeked inside, but you’ll need to wait ’til later this year for the reveal and the fall release of this collection.

Yardage is always appreciated along with all the coordinating fabrics.

And here it all is in its glory. Of course I made room for it all – there’s always room for more fabric!

And the Winner of my Island Batik scrap bundle is…..(our main computer crashed tonight – I was going to show the random generator, but no can do)

Dee Dee M!

Thank you all for all the fun comments and joining in on this giveaway. Look for a month of giveaways by all the Island Batik Ambassadors in August!

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Posted in Art, Blog Hop, Fabric, Give Away, Island Batiks, Quilting, Scraps and tagged Quilting, Scraps. Bookmark the permalink.

January & Blog Hop Winner

Posted on February 4, 2018 by heARTs Creations

So many quilters have accomplished so much in January. I, on the other hand, cannot boast many accomplishments! We spent all of January near Pensacola, Florida – the coldest January there in ten years! I did have my sewing machine with me, but alas, it had issues so I packed it up the first week. I had hand work and that’s all I have to show for January! It’s really okay, though – we made the most of things, took lots of hikes and bicycle rides and saw area attractions. I think the break from my sewing machine was healthy.

I really like the redwork Snowmen. The pattern came with 12 blocks but I am done at two. (The Quilter’s Snowman by Primose Lane) I think they will make a lovely Christmas pillow (front and back.) I’ve also been diligently working on my first LollyPop Tree block (Lollypop Trees by Kim McLean). Not going to show it just yet. I plan on doing 7 more which means they won’t be done for a while – it’s a huge undertaking!

JANUARY LISTING

Blog Hop & Give-Away –

Thank you to all who visited the Island Batik Blog Hop. I so appreciated all the kind and supportive comments. I do read each and every one! For me it’s like a cyber retreat! A big shout out and thank you to all my followers – your support is very inspiring. And the winner is: Karen of Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats. Congrats Karen – I know you’ll love your rolls of batik fabric!

Linking up with: Super Mom No Cape

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Posted in Applique, Art, block pattern, Blog Hop, Color, Embroider, Fabric, Island Batiks, Pattern, Projects, Quilting and tagged Color, Embroidery, Patterns, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

A Favorite Season, Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Posted on January 24, 2018 by heARTs Creations

An Island Batik Adventure

This is the last Island Batik project for my first year as an Island Batik Ambassador – “The Four Seasons.” Lucky me – I got to use the new City Culture 2 collection. The colors and patterns of these fabrics are so rich – I just love them!

Talk about putting the cart before the horse – I made the quilt and then decided on a season. After putting them all together, I just couldn’t choose one of the four seasons – so instead I chose what was my favorite season as a child: “Indian Summer!” Having grown up on Long Island, NY, we experienced this wonderful time for a couple of weeks each year and I always cherished it. The colors in this collection remind me so much of the unseasonal warmth and pretty sunsets of Indian Summer.

January 2018

I used the pattern “Tropical Patches” by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith. The pattern had three main blocks but I chose to use two – I just thought it worked best for how I was putting it all together. The border is really my favorite. I think it ties it all together and makes it come alive.

I quilted this piece myself and can’t say I really enjoyed the process until I got to the border. I am pleased with the way those medallions turned out. Not a fan of heavy quilting, this worked perfectly for this quilt.

Border

When the quilt was complete, I hung it outside to air out for a while. The sun was shining on it as I looked at the quilt from above on my deck. That’s when I realized I really liked it!

Indian Summer quilt (Large)

Ahh yes – the giveaway!

Two ways to win: (1) Tell me your favorite season, (2) let me know if you are a follower, and you may be the one randomly chosen to win two stash buster rolls of Island Batik! (US only) The winner will be announced February 4. Be sure to check out the other great Four Season projects by the Island Batik Ambassadors!