Verse For Sunday

I would like to take this opportunity to say my condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones in a war at some point in time. 
I have posted a picture on my last post about this but I wanted you to see a picture that I took of this.

This is a picture of a patch on my husbands "cut" (vest) 

Thank You For Your Sacrifice

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of truth, and they may come to their sense and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
2 Timothy 2:24-26

Baby Doll Quilt and WINNERS!

Hello Quilting Friends

I know, I know you want to know who won the anniversary giveaway. But if I tell you who won you will not read the rest. LOL So I want to tell you what I have been working on sense I finished the "i heart you" quilt top.

You see one of my nieces is having her 2nd birthday next week and she loves, loves, loves baby dolls. She is a great mother to her "babies" too. Last week she wanted to prove to her mom and dad that she was a big girl. So during the night she tried to climb out of her crib. 

The next day her mom took her to the doctor and found out she had broken 2 bones in her arm while trying to get out of her crib. 

Here she is with her little pink cast.

So I decided to buy her a baby doll for her birthday. But what kind of aunt would I be if I did not make her a quilt for her to wrap that baby doll in?!

So I have been working on a baby doll quilt. I just dug through my scraps and put together some simple 9 patch blocks.

Here is the baby doll and quilt top.

(I think it measured 12x24 or there about.)

I had some Valdani thread on my shelf so I decided to give it a try. Now mind you I am an Aurifil girl all the way. My machine loves it. But I hate to be wasteful and this thread has just been sitting. This is their variegated in "Children's Play" V49 35wt. very thick. It was slow going but this was a small quilt. 

Sorry for the blurry photos I was in a hurry to get this in the mail today.  

I have this jar full of bindings ends so I decided I could go with a scrapy binding as well.

Laura over at Sewing Mom Podcast talked about getting her patterns organized. So I decided to use the idea she talked about and get mine organized too. I have purchased a lot of PDF patterns lately and this is going to be great. Otherwise they get stuffed into a drawer. 

So that is what has been going on over here in my little quilty world.

So now for the part you have all been waiting for!

AND THE WINNERS ARE......

lalaluu and Connie

This is what lalaluu said:

This is what Connie said:

  

They have both sent me their mailing addresses. So I will get your squares off to you as soon as I can ladies. 

Let me say again THANK YOU for your very sweet and encouraging comments about my quilt top. I am truly blesses with such wonderful quilting friends!!

I hope you all have a great holiday. And remember:

Linking up with:

Finish it up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Can I get a Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Show Off Saturday @ Sew Can She

Hugs and best stitches to you,

a.k.a. Mrs. Sew & Sew

Verse For Sunday

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be written between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Have a great week.

Hugs and best stitches to you,

a.k.a. Mrs. Sew & Sew

A Quilt Top Finish and Anniversary Giveaway

Well I did it! I finished my "i heart you" quilt top. Now I know a quilt is not finished until the last stitch goes into the binding. I am going to show you the process it took to make this quilt and you will know why I am so excited. 

First I don't remember where exactly I saw the pattern at, it might have been on Pintrest. This pattern is by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co. You can buy the pattern in PDF format from her website HERE

This is what Vanessa's quilt looked like:

I really liked the look of her quilt when I first saw it.

Until I saw this one

I had this pinned on my Pintrest board Quilted with LOVE  You can see it on the website HERE. I read on the website that she used fabrics from Connecting Threads. So I ordered some charms from Connecting Threads and realized I didn't have enough so I ordered some stacks and cut them into charms. 

I printed Connecting Threads chart to see what colors I wanted to get.

I got them all cut into charms.

How in the world do I choose which ones to use....ugh!

Then you have to choose how many of each color to use.

Then you have to trim, trim, trim them down.

(I was sharing a lot on Instagram) 

The next few pictures are of me trying to sew this quilt together. I had to iron all the seems open to reduce the bulk of the quilt.

This is the top of the heart. The left is all put together and the right is just laid out.

Now today I finished the quilt and was able to take some pictures this afternoon.

I only took two pictures inside. I just like the look of the pictures outside better.

The natural light looks so much better.

It was a very windy day here for some reason.

So that is the finished quilt top. I made the wall hanging quilt. Well almost, the wall hanging has 6.5 inch boarders but mine has 2.5 inch boarders. I needed it to be small because of where I wanted to hang it. There is also a bed sized version on the pattern if you would like to make this for your bed.

Now I know you are wondering about the title of this post. The anniversary part anyway. Well this month will be my one year anniversary here on my blog. So I have decided to have a giveaway to celebrate! Yeah! Here is what I am giving away.

This is some of the half square triangles and charm squares I had left over.

There is actually going to be two winners. Yes I said TWO WINNERS!! Each winner will receive 8 half square triangles and 51 charm squares. Here's how you can win one of these sets.

Here are the rules:

First you must be a follower of my blog. (after all this is to celebrate my one year anniversary on this blog) Don't worry if your not a follower you can become one right now! Welcome! :) 

This is open to Continental U.S. Residents only. Sorry Alaska, Hawaii and over seas guests. (shipping cost are horribly high)   

This Giveaway will run for one week. From May 16 to May 23 

I will pick a winner on the 23rd

Now how to enter:

Leave a comment on this post and tell me,

How you follow my blog. (i.e. Google+, Feedly, Bloglovin, Feedspot, ect.)

and tell me what you think you might do with your half square triangles and charm squares if you win. (don't worry I won't hold ya to what ever you write here LOL)

Please ONLY comment one time. (I do this the old school way of drawing a number, so I have to count how many entries I have) Hey...I'm being optimistic that a lot of people read my blog. A girl can hope...right?!  

If you forget something you wanted to say just shoot me an email. flquiltershell (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

Linking up with:

Giveaway Round up @ Missouri Mel

Finish it Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Can I get a Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Show off Saturday @ Sew Can She

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

Anything Goes Monday @ Stitch By Stitch

Show and Tell Tuesday @ I Have to Say

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion By the River

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Work In Progress Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Really Random Thursday @ Live a Colorful Life

Hugs and best stitches to you,

a.k.a. Mrs. Sew & Sew

Verse for Sunday

Happy Mother's Day.
I hope you all have a great week.
Hugs and best stitches to you,
Michelle
a.k.a. Mrs. Sew & Sew

Flowers from my sweet son Dylan.

Busy Start to Spring

Well it has been a great while sense my last "real" post. I have been supper busy this spring.

Well it actually started before spring got here. My husband bought a bike in Feb.....no not a bicycle a motorcycle! The reason is he took over the F.A.I.T.H. Riders at our church. That is a big step for him. So needless to say we did a lot of riding..... yes even in cold weather. We had leathers on but some days oh man I thought I was going to freeze to death. 

We started out with a 2007 Harley Davidson Street Bob in Black Denim.

  
It was very clear to us as we got into this ministry that this was not the bike we needed. We had no where to carry things or store things. 
So as we got ready to buy an extended warranty my husband asked the salesman if there was another bike that we could get and still stay in the same price range. So they searched and well we traded bikes only 2 months after buying the first bike. 
Now we have a 2008 Street Glide the 105th anniversary edition. It is number 333 of 3,000 My husband says it could not be more perfect. The 333 he said is The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Works for me.

  
I really like the new bike better anyway. It rides a lot different. 

If you would like more information on the F.A.I.T.H. Riders you can visit their website HERE

If you would like to know a little more about our chapter of the F.A.I.T.H. Riders you can click on the tab at the top of my blog or you can visit us at our Facebook Page HERE and "Like" us for updates. 

The other thing that has kept me Very Very busy is the birds that have been hatching here about every 10 days. 

We have about 200 quail and 25 pheasant's.

This is the first time these baby pheasant's have been on the ground and they know exactly what to do.

O.K. So now on to the quilting and sewing i have been working on.

This is a strip quilt I made using left over scraps.

This one will belong to the oldest little boy that will soon be my new nephew. (crossing fingers)

These are scraps I have used in making tee shirt quilts.

This one is for the younger of the two boys.

These quilts are a little wider than the normal jelly roll quilts. 

I think they turned out pretty good.

Now to just get time to quilt them. I do know what thread I am going to use.

This is a Glow in the Dark thread by Superior Thread. The color is white. 

I am still working on my "i heart you" pattern. Holy Seems.

I do have one block completely done. The one on the left is done and the one on the right is just all laid out.   

And as if I didn't have enough to do or already started.....I started a really simple baby doll quilt for my niece. Her birthday is at the end of the month.

Some 1 and a half inch scraps.

Turn into 3 and a half inch 9 patch blocks. (Forgot to square it up before I took the pic.)

A 3 and a half inch block next to a 6 and a half inch block.

These blocks are so small. I know they are not to some of you but they are to me.

One of my fellow bloggers Amy was coming to Florida for a vacation and I happen to ask where she was planning to go. She told me and I said that is only 60 miles from where I live. So.... Amy and her husband met me in the town that I live closest to and while they ate their lunch we sat and chatted. It was so nice to finally meet someone who you have been following for so long and YES if you are wondering she is as sweet in person as she is on her Blog and in her sweet emails she sends. So thanks Amy for taking time out of your vacation to visit with me. I can't wait to hear about all your adventures while you were vacationing.

In other blogging news I have found a new sewing/quilting podcast. It is called the Sewing Mom Podcast 

Laura is a Mom (duh) and she not only can quilt but she can sew! Sigh....wish I could read sewing patterns well enough to learn to make things for myself. 

Anyway enough with the pity party. Laura has a LOT of useful information on her blog she gives all the links where she finds things and she does reviews on books. Thanks Laura! So go by and check her blog out and see all the things she has made. 

Whew....

Man that was a lot to say. But it has been a while. Sorry....um but not really I do have a life. A VERY busy one. Again if you want to know what is going with me you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

I hope you all have a Great Mother's Day.

UPDATE:

I have now finished the quilt top you can read about it HERE

Linking up with:

Show off Saturday @ Sew can She

Anything goes Monday @ Stitch by Stitch

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Sew and Tell Tuesday @ I Have to Say...

Work in Progress Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Really Random Thursday @ Live a Colorful Life

Hugs and Best Stitches to You,

a.k.a. Mrs. Sew & Sew