If you know me, you know that my daughter Shelbie is a fabulous and prolific knitter.  I'm always after her to make things for me.  And she does.  Isn't that wonderful?

This is Shelbie with one of the several shawls she has knitted this year.  I love a shawl.  Don't you?  You just wrap it around and go.  Shelbie uses great quality yarns so they wear wonderfully.

I got the idea that I wanted this shawl and sent shelbie the link from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts.  You can go to that link and see the shawls she has knitted.  I emailed Shelbie the link and I was so glad to get my warm, wonderful shawl, customized to me perfectly.

I love the stripes and I love the lace at the edge.  It is fun to see how each of them are so unique depending on the yarn Shelbie uses.  Don't you wish you had your own Shelbie?

-nanette

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Over the Thanksgiving break I finished making all my blocks for my Pam Kitty Morning Love quilt.    And I also began sashing my blocks.

I've had a lot of fun designing and sewing the blocks. So now putting them together and seeing my ideas take shape is a big pay off.

This is just a little sneak peek.  Since Pam's yardage IS OUT!! I ordered my outer border from Fat Quarter Shop. FQS has all the packs and yardage.   I'm so excited to get my flimsy to the quilter.  I know I won't get it back before Christmas but that is ok.  It will be here in January all quilted and my pattern will be done.  

-nanette

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Lori has row 7 up on her blog.  The new block is a modernish leaf.  It was easy and quick and I made no mistakes.

I chose fall fabric colors for the leaves.

My stems are from an open weave looking quilt fabric.

I used some vintage fabrics for some of the leaves.  It was a fun weekend project.  

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving.  Now bring on the Christmas craziness.

-nanette

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Hoping you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.  Don't wear yourself out!

-nanette

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I really love templates and rulers.  So I was very excited to get the scoop on Lori's new set of circle rulers put out by Riley Blake. Lori has 3 sizes of rulers:  these circles, thimbles and half hexis.  It is exciting to have circles that you can actually use with a rotary cutter.

Above are the circle rulers in 4 sizes, perfect for using with precuts or just about anything.  I was lucky to get an advance issue of them (so excited).  You can buy them from local fabric stores starting soon or from Fat Quarter Shop here.  You can read all about how Lori is using them in this blog post on Bee in my Bonnet.  I have lots of ideas for using all the circles in future projects.  I like how they are ruled in quarters.  Lori has just opened an Etsy shop and you can get her patterns and rulers there, too (have you seen her new scissors pattern?  sew cute)

I met with Lori for lunch a couple weeks ago and we discussed my new pattern with Pam Kitty Morning fabric that I'm currently working on.  Lori and I talked about an idea with both had.  She gave me this sweet bag made from her fabric, the thick linen cloth, and stamps and pad to use on fabric.

Using Lori's method she describes in this post tutorial, I got to work this past weekend using the smallest of the circle ruler/template. I followed Lori's idea and method to use in my new project with fabric squares and light weight non-fusible interfacing.

The smallest circle fits inside a 2 1/2" square just perfectly with seam allowance to spare. 

I traced the circle and stitched the fabric to the interfacing.  I trimmed my circle leaving the seam allowance, slit the interfacing and turned and pressed my circles.

This is the latest block for my Pam Kitty Love fabric quilt:  Big button cards.  The circles applique perfectly to look like covered buttons and the stamps identify the button cards with whimsy.   I'm really having fun using the circle ruler and the stamps together.  I want to do more with both of them.  I can't wait to use the larger sizes.  Thanks Lori and Riley Blake.

-nanette

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At the end of September my sisters and nieces came to my house for our little yearly quilt retreat.  Several of them finished their 2012 project, which were from my Freda's Beehive quilt pattern.  The tutorial for the blocks is here.  It is really wonderful to see my family making quilts together.  It gives me so much satisfaction to see the finished products.  I know Freda would approve.

This large version is my sister Michelle's quilt.  It is queen sized and I think she's going to put it on her bed up at the ranch in Wyoming.  It really turned out so beautifully.  

Eagle Mountain Quilting did  the edge-to-edge machine quilting.  I really love how it goes with the beehive theme of the quilt.

You can see the pattern better on the back of the quilt -  the hives, bees and honey pot pattern stitched all over the quilt.  Super cute.

This is my sister Polly's table topper.  I think she did a great job.

This one is my niece Tricia's table topper.  She may end up hanging it on the wall.  I stitched the binding on all 3 quilts so now they just have to hand stitch the binding to the backs of each quilt.  That makes for good hand work on a cool evening.  I hope they like how their quilts turned out.  I'm really proud of them.

-nanette

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Sometimes the quilts I make get given away.  Some get stacked onto shelves to look pretty.  And sometimes the quilts get used.

Yesterday Whitney took a stack of quilts and made Allison an big fort under my long kitchen table.  I think she used 7 quilts, chairs, benches and dishes to anchor the fort.

Whitney decorated the inside with pillows, blankets and (pumpkin) fairy lights so little miss Allison (dirty face) could play with and watch Buzz and Woody (her favorite movies).

This was one of the quilts used.  It is a quilt I made 7 years ago.  I don't think I've ever showed it on my blog.  I really like floating stars.

-nanette

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