Around the World Blog Hop!

Hi everyone and welcome to A Quilting Chick!  I was tagged in this fun blog hop by Erin over at Sew at Home Mummy (*waves* Hi Erin!).  Have y'all been following along on this one?  It has been so much fun to explore and meet so many new people and find so many new blogs!  So without further ado, let me tell you a bit about me!

I'm a single mom of three wonderful, almost fully grown children, the last of which hits 18 this week (how is that even possible???).  Quilting is my stress reliever which I'm sure many of you understand.  My kids get this and whenever I'm starting to flip out, they pour me a glass of sweet tea, and point me to my sewing machine.  Awesome kids, right?

I just finished up my Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL.  Here's a pic of the finished top...

 

Love that one!  And a few closeups of it...

I would say that my style is more traditional with a modern twist.  I much prefer the more traditional block, put together in a new, fun way or with some awesome modern fabric.  I love scrap quilts like this one...

This is my version of the Scrap Jar Star quilt.  To me, a scrap quilt doesn't have to look like a scrap quilt.  I pulled all of these fabrics form the scrap pile, but making sure they were from the same color family really made this one gorgeous.

I help test patterns for Persimmon Quilts who writes mysteries to help benefit the Quilt of Valor program.  Here is one I recently finished up testing...

I just finished up testing another for her and should be able to share a finish soon.  I love sampler quilts.  But again, I like to put my own twist on them, like on this one...

I combined the sampler blocks with a star block to make my one unique setting for the sampler.  One of my absolute favorites (click on the picture for details!).

Traditional doesn't have to mean boring and modern doesn't have to be, "out there!"  Take the elements of both, the ones you love, and make them your own!

I can't wait to see meet more people as we follow along on this blog hop!  I'm tagging:

Melissa - Tension Issues (she uses sewing to relax too!)

Sabrina - Sabie Sews (Love!  Awesome fabrics and tutes!)  and...

Anna - Mod Quilt Girl  (Another Texas Gal!)

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts:

Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip Quilt

It's finally done!!!  Can you tell I'm a little excited?!?  I finally finished the top for my Texas quilt.  And here she is:

 

For those of you stopping by for the first time, or if you've never heard of it, this was a quilt along hosted over at My Fabric Relish called the Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip QAL.  It was a combination blog hop and quilt along.   The patterns are still there so you can make your own version at anytime!  Here are some closeup shots.

First up is the fourth quadrant...

 

 

From left to right we have a bed and breakfast block for the Hill Country, then the block I designed for Austin (I needed to represent UT), and right next to that is College Station (Gig 'em), and then Beaumont.  The star I designed for my hometown, San Antonio, with an Astros block representing Houston.  Then we have a beach house for the coast, Lady Lexington for Corpus Christi, and a sea turtle for the Rio Grande Valley.

Next up is the first quadrant...

 

 

We have the longhorn for Ft. Worth, then the Texas Star Ferris Wheel for Dallas, and a rose I found elsewhere online to represent Tyler.

The second quadrant....

 

 

Another paper pieced rose for Amarillo, and the Southwestern style block represents Lubbock.

And an "in the making shot" of the third quadrant as I forgot to take a finished closeup...

 

Here we have a railroad block for El Paso, the oil derrick for Midland/Odessa, and finally the camper block for Big Bend. 

Can you tell how much I love this quilt???  I simply adore it.  I printed up all the instructions as I have a ton of family here in Texas and have a strong feeling this won't be the only one I make.  My son tried to claim it and when I told him it was for me, he pulled the, "after you die," card!  Wow.

I hope you enjoyed the roadtrip with me.  On to the next project!  

Linking up with Quilt Story and My Quilt Infatuation and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Also with Val for Tuesday Archives.

Fabric Tuesday 9/2/14

Did y'all have a great holiday weekend??  We sure did.  Sewing Friday and Monday with two full days of family, friends, bbq's and pool time in between.  What a wonderful, official "end of summer" celebration.  

And notice, I said sewing time??  I have gotten several more blocks done for my Texas Roadtrip QAL.  First up, here is the block I decided to do for Austin.  Those of you that are new here may not know, but I am NOT an applique' girl.  These blocks have really been pushing me to learn.

 

No sooner had I posted the Austin block to my Facebook and a friend was booing and hissing at it!  So, not to be outdone, here is the block for College Station....

 

And then we added in the bonus blocks.  I have family down in Corpus Christi and just spent a fantabulous Fourth of July visiting them, so Lady Lex had to be added to my quilt...

 

And then with so much coastline here, we had to have the beach house block.  Pretty sure she's going on the coast between Corpus and the Valley.

 

Only two more blocks to go!  I have the hill country and my hometown, San Antonio.  San Antonio is changing up from the block given but I haven't decided what needs to go there.  Leaning towards a spur.  :)  What do y'all think?? 

Have a great week!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday with Patchwork Times.

 

Fabric Tuesday

I'm making more progress on my Texas Roadtrip QAL.  Here is my sea turtle block representing the Rio Grande Valley.

Isn't he adorable???  Just love this little guy. I'm plugging away.  Hopefully will get a lot done over the weekend.

Linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.

Design Wall Monday 8/25/14

I finally finished the mystery quilt I've been testing for Persimmon Quilts and her mystery quilts for Quilts of Valor.  Guys, this one turned out gorgeous and she just started putting out the steps so if you want a gorgeous, fun quilt to make, head on over and get started!  This was #36, but every one has been fantastic.

So, since I finally finished that, I've been able to get back to my Texas Roadtrip QAL.  I LOVE this quilt!  Here's my version of the camper block for Big Bend...

And since I got that block done, I was able to assemble the third quadrant.... 

 

And then put all three up on the design wall...

 

 

I just don't know how I could love this more!!  It is so pretty.  I can hardly wait to get the last quadrant done.  There are a lot more pieced blocks in the last quadrant so it may take a little bit of time.  But I did manage to get the Houston block done.  The original quilt along calls for a sailboat block.  So I changed it up and here's mine...

 

 

See, I lived in Houston until I was 13 and my favorite times were spent at the Astrodome, watching the Astros play baseball.  Thus my block is for the Astros.  

Many block to go!  Can't wait to see how much I can get done before the next Design Wall Monday linkup at Patchwork Times!

 

Design Wall Monday

I had such a busy, crazy week that nothing really got accomplished at my sewing machine.  I got the fabrics and patterns printed for the next step on my Texas Roadtrip QAL....

I also made it to 6 more shops in the Row by Row Experience and picked up plates at each one...

I've got an idea on how to incorporate them into the back of the roadtrip quilt.  We'll see how it works out.

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Quilt Story.

Design Wall Monday

Wow!  I feel like I got a lot of sewing done this week but when I look back at the pictures I don't see much.  But here's what I've been working on.  First up is the Texas Roadtrip QAL.  I did the El Paso block (over to the left representing the railroad), the block for Midland/Odessa (the oil rig), and the piecing for the third quadrant.

I was so excited that we are about done with the third quadrant and about to start the fourth and final quadrant.  But just like Texas, that quadrant is huge and will take the entire month of July!!  But I'm super excited to get to my part of the state.

Next up are last week's and this week's blocks for the Austen Family Album. This one is from this week and it went together so quickly.

And here's the one from last week.  I'm just loving these 30's prints.  We are finished with week 13 out of 36 weeks so 1/3 of the way there.  I'm really thinking of using a nice yellow to set them.  We'll see when I get it laid out.

And finally I finished up the July blocks for the Supernova Friendship Block Swap.  Here are my first two blocks together.  I haven't gotten mine from my swap partner yet but they'll get here soon and we'll see how they all work together!

So that's all I've been up to this week!  What are you working on???

Linking up to Patchwork Times and Freshly Pieced.

Cathy

Design Wall Monday

I think I just have way too many projects going for just one design wall.  So my "active this last week" ones and I took a walk outside for a photo shoot.  First up is the Texas Roadtrip QAL.  Can I just say I'm in love with this quilt???

I should get the Lubbock block finished tonight so the second quadrant will be done.  Then I can get started on the third quadrant which came out yesterday.

Next up is my Jane Austen Family Album blocks.  I raided my 30's stash for these.  A few of the prints are from my grandmother's fabrics, one of the few things I still have of hers, and I love the emotion they are adding for me personally into this quilt.

I still need to do this week's block that came out yesterday.

Next up is the first row of the Moda Trifle Dish Sew Along.  I'm way behind on this one but I decided to not rush it and just enjoy the process.  These are all scraps.  The half square triangles are bonus HST's from a previous project.

I also worked on a test quilt but I can't show that one yet.  

What have y'all been working on??

Cathy

Linking up with Patchwork Times. and Freshly Pieced.

Playing Catch-Up!

Today was about playing a little bit of catch up for me.  I did this week's block for the Austen Family Album.  It's called the Friendship Square.  I really like this block.  I'll try to take a pic of all 11 blocks together at some point this week so you can get an idea of what it's going to look like.

And I'm just about caught up on my Texas Roadtrip QAL.  We are up to Amarillo which is Spanish for Yellow.  The person in charge of the Amarillo block chose this paper pieced rose.  But it looks more like a star to me.  Especially after my paper-pieced rose for Tyler.  But I really like this one too.

I'm hoping to have the Panhandle section and the first section finished by the end of the weekend.

So what are y'all working on???  Linking up with Quilt Story.

Cathy

Design Wall Monday

This has been a long week with a lot of errands and a spontaneous trip to the coast but I did manage to get some work done on my Texas Roadtrip QAL from My Fabric Relish.  These are the blocks for Dallas and Tyler.  The rose isn't the one provided in the QAL but rather one I found online and resized to fit.  It's much more my style and I'm thrilled with it.

 

This is the start of the Ft. Worth block (the pic is terrible because it was really late and I couldn't get outside to get a good one, but you get the general idea). 

 

They released the next quadrant pattern on Sunday and I was working on that last night and will tackle the Amarillo block tonight.  Can't wait to see how this whole thing works out!  I have family members all over the state watching the progress on this quilt and I have a feeling I'll be making several versions of it before all is said and done.

So what's on your design wall? 

Cathy

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

 

Texas Yellow Rose

I promise I'll get a better picture tomorrow when I can get out in the sun, but I couldn't resist sharing!!!  I am in love with this block!!!

Fabric Tuesday & WIP Wednesday!

I had so much fun today!  I've been following along with the Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip Quilt Along being hosted over at My Fabric Relish.  Actually, it just started on the first, but it's been a blast so far!!  Y'all really ought to check it out.  Consider it your summer vacation through this beautiful state.

We started with the first quadrant...

As you can see, I decided to play with some of my many, many pastels.  I threw in the red as a contrast square and I love how it is playing with the pastels.  The tone just matches the darker red in the florals.

Yesterday, the Dallas block came out.  It's going right in that middle space you see above.  It is based on a fantastic Dallas attraction at the state fair, The Texas Star Ferris wheel.  I saw the pattern yesterday and couldn't wait to print out the pattern this morning and I got started on it as soon as I got home from work.

Don't you love how this...

Turns into this???

It's so pretty!!!  And that, became this....

The colors are way off on this!  (Dangers of taking pics inside I suppose)  But I love, love, love this!!  It's not too late for you to join in!!

What are y'all working on??

Cathy

Linking up with Quilt Story and Freshly Pieced.

Design Wall Monday!

Okay, my design wall is still full with the purple star blocks so I am going to show you what I've been working on over the last week.  Here's the Union Jack blocks (from Mc'Calls Quilting, Jan/Feb 2014)...

Then we have the blocks for the Supernova Friendship Block Swap...

And I got started on the Deep in the Heart of Texas Roadtrip Quilt Along...

I cannot wait to put together a the block for Dallas to fill in part of that hole.  It came out today.  This quilt along just started this weekend so plenty of time to join in.

So what's on your design wall?

Cathy

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.