Happy New Year to Pine Needle Quilters!

Here's to wishing all our members and readers a Happy New Year!  We wish everyone good health, good friends and many finished UFO's.

New Year's Day means new Mystery Quilts that start on the first day of the year.  You can follow along with one on About.Com Quilting.  You can start this tonight and tomorrow you will find more instructions to keep sewing this mystery.

Merry Mayhem at Planet Patchwork always has a New Years Mystery and you can follow along all day with this one.  I did make one of these myself a few years ago and it was a lot of fun. (and mysterious...).

Bonnie Hunter started a mystery quilt in November and you can start to follow this one too.  She posted every couple of weeks or so.  She is definitely the queen of scraps and has such great ideas for them.  Here is a link to another of her mystery quilts called Celtic Solstice and it is still available.  Love all things Celtic.

Stay warm and plan for a super 2014!  Diana

It's Over and Now What Do We Do?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and had a wonderful time with family and friends.  Now that it's over, it's a great time to slip on some boots and go for a walk and clear the head.  Of course, the fingers can suffer from the cold so go check out ARMOMMY for a diy on sewing finger warmers.  I think the grandkids would benefit from these and so simple.

For the perpetually organized, I would love these pouches for patterns that you have printed from the internet or just for those you have lost the bag for. Zaaberry has a nice detailed tutorial for these.(and so pretty too)  For those welcoming babies into their families, these hats are so sweet. Love the one with the ears.

Okay, I love anything using charm squares and this is as cute and fast as it can get.  These corner bookmarks are just the greatest.  Craft Buds has the tutorial for these, kids would love them, grandmas and any reader would appreciate them.  Many e-readers were received this Christmas and how about a pouch for them?  And where did they find the polka-dot zipper?

Have a great weekend.   Diana

Eye Catching Quilts

Maria Elkins lovely blue Teacup Quilt really caught my eye. The fact that it was a guild challenge is interesting as I've always found the challenges to push me into new directions. The Teacup Quilt's monochromatic theme is really beautiful and is an often overlooked way to coordinate fabrics.
Throwing in a bit of spring fever by showing you this apiary quilt called Honey Honey.  It's just the cutest and wouldn't it be the greatest way to use up some scraps.  This quilt is designed by Kate Spain for Moda.
The next one is called Flying Colors II by Laurel Burch. These are some pretty butterflies and once again, it could be a great scrap quilt.
I may have featured this last year but it is just so cute so take a look at Red Brolly's Christmas Wish Quilt. Each block is cuter than the next.  The Santa is my favorite. But who wouldn't love Brutus opening the gifts. This reminds me of a dog we had who opened all the cherry cordials under the tree while we were at a Christmas program.  She ate them all and even left the little paper cups behind, luckily she went outside and got sick or I think all that chocolate would have killed her!  Just one of those Christmas memories I guess.
Take care and have a great weekend.  Hope you have your shopping done.  Santa's workshop,in my house, is still busily assembling and sewing and embellishing.   Diana

Great Video and Disappearing 4 Patch

The Missouri Quilt Co. is such a great site and her videos are the best.  Hope you like the one that I just put on about the Wedge Star.  If you sign up for their emails, you get a daily deal from them which are very pretty and the prices are great too.

Here is a link to a Disappearing 4-Patch, not sure if we've had this version before but I liked it. The blog is Andie Johnson Sews and she has tutorials and also books to her credit.  Have a great  one.  Diana

How to make the Wedge Star Quilt

Poinsettias and other good things

I found a blog where she shows how to do machine binding with a flat felt seam foot.  The site is called A Woman A Day and she has a detailed account of how to apply binding in this manner.  I too am not crazy about doing bindings and a nice, faster method would be wonderful for most of the quilts I make.

Sew Kind of Wonderful has a pattern for a lovely poinsettia that is worth checking out. Just look at that pretty teal and white runner and then go down the page a bit and she has the pdf for the pattern.  Really  really pretty.

The soon to be New Year always brings to mind the dreaded word--organization.  My sewing room looks like a bomb fell in it right now and it definitely needs some organizing.  Moda has some tips for doing a little spiffying up of the room.  Good luck...Moda Bake Shop also has a tutorial for a quick stocking stuffer, hair scrunchies.  Love them. These were made by Karin of Cascade Quilts. She has a lot of nice quilts and also a tutorial for making pinwheels out of charm squares.  Enjoy these posts and have a nice day.   Diana

O, Jerusalem

The Daily Blog from the Quilt Show has a wonderful slideshow of quilts that were presented for an exhibition at the Houston show.  It's called the Many Faces of Jerusalem and is done by the Israeli Quilters Association.  I am first struck by the beautiful colors of these quilts and the many geometric shapes, then the influence of this city comes through in the quilts.  This is the first of two parts that they will show us and I hope you enjoy.  Diana

Christmas Stockings and Reindeer Games

Our Christmas party is always a fun time isn't it?  What a bunch of fun loving ladies you are!

 

Not only fun loving, but warm and generous as well!  This year you made 60 Christmas stockings with stuffed animal tucked lovingly inside, to be distributed at our local hospitals this Holiday Season.  Thank you to all for your kindness!

 

Did I mention fun loving....and just plain silly sometimes!?!? 

 

Then there are the reindeer games....where nobody is left out!  I see we are even lucky enough to have a "Rudolph" in the bunch! 

Thanks for the fun times and wonderful friendships and memories made!

Laurie

Spring? and Great Videos

How about a pretty spring-like project?  Don't Look Now has a lovely pillow that will make you wish for warmer temps, pretty flowers and birds.
Sue Daley has wonderful videos using English paper piecing.  Clamshells are so pretty and so are the applecore shape.  The videos I posted right below this post are really great to show you how to do these wonderfu hand pieced techniques.  I hope you enjoy. Diana.

Ep 7 How to Sew Applecores: Sue Daley's Shape Up English Paper Piecing S...

Ep 6 How to Sew Clamshells: Sue Daley's Shape Up English Paper Piecing S...

Snowflakes

I loved looking at the pictures Laurie posted of our November show and tell.  Pine Needle Quilters are very busy quilters!  Now that the cold has really settled in, all those warm quilts are definitely needed.
Snowflakes were on my mind and recalling our beautiful snowflake quilt we made a couple of years ago, I decided to look at more quilts made with that lovely shape.
This quilt with it's lovely blues and purples was really attractive.  Imagine my surprise when I looked further on this site and saw the very same pattern that we made for our snowflake raffle quilt.
This is a stunning red and white quilt.  This was quilted by Angela Walters.  If you want to learn to quilt a snowflake, Susan Brubaker Knapp will show you some ideas.
This blue and white quilt  sparkles and shimmers. Here is a really cute snowman and snowflake quilt. In looking for the link to this quilt, I came across the maker's really Christmasy blog post.  I think you will enjoy looking at her decor.  The blog is called Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.  What a pretty home!
Can't get over this stunning quilt made by Meg Baier. A single block  can work too.  This block by Craftsy is really pretty. How about a snowflake tree, very nice idea.
The colorful snowflakes on this quilt pattern offered by Joann Fabrics is different and very pretty.  If you click print this project, it does show how to make the snowflakes.  It's really a simple quilt of fabric strips with snowflakes appliqued.
I found a lot more flakes but hope this gets you thinking about this beautiful style of pattern.  Stay warm.  Diana

November's Show and Tell

Hope you enjoy these photos from our last months Show and Tell!  You sure are a busy bunch of ladies.  It is a long one, so enjoy!

OK, I think??? the above quilt is a soldier quilt made by Maggie?

Above and below, Deb has been very productive making charity quilts, Christmas quilts, and baby quilt!

Busy, busy Deb!

Also Deb has made a couple really cute and snugly floor mats for baby!  How sweet!

Above Toni models new hat.

Above Toni with her "Funky Tree", and below with a darling Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.

Kathy S. brought in a very large Double Wedding Ring quilt that she made for someone who ordered it at our quilt show last fall.  What a lot of work, and so striking!

Above Joan shows her Christmas tree wall hanging.  Below is quilted detail of frog that sits at base of tree!  The tree will be adorned with froggy ornaments!

Above Joan shows the bag that she made from a recycled denim dress.  She used the lovely existing embroidery to her benefit!  Below Carol shows her weekender tote.

Above Carol shows a 3 Yard Quilt, and below a very sweet Sesame Street baby quilt.

 

Laurie

Cardinal Day

Today is going to be cardinal day.  Who doesn't love a cardinal and we'll start a cardinal show with this one. I love the three pieces of this wallhanging.   The Celtic Quilter has a group of birds.  A lovely paper pieced bird.
This stained glass style cardinal is very nice too.  I love the seed fabric she used. This is a great forest of birds. Here is a great cardinal on a fence post.  This one is for a machine embroidered cardinal quilt. This cardinal by Kaaren Johnston is a lovely hand embroidered pattern. Then I went to her wonderful blog and found a whole list of Freebies.  She has a list of First Friday Freebies Patterns you must check out.  Also, there are some great BOM that she list on the side bars.  You must check them out as they are very very nice.  Her blog was very enjoyable and full of traditional quilt ideas.
Hope you enjoyed this quilt show featuring cardinals.  Drive careful, my husband said there were a lot of cars in (and out) of the ditches yesterday.  Diana

Great Party

The Elven Garden had a tutorial for one of my favorite blocks(and I have not ever made one) which is the Snail's Trail.  She shows us how to make a very pretty trail. I also love the sashiko that is featured here.

Not sure if I posted this before but Cloud 9 has a nice looking pattern for a leaf quilt.  It is called Turning Leaves. The simplicity of it is very pretty. They also have a whole page of tutorials for their fabric line.  Also, check out their Download page. Lots of ideas here.

What a great time we had last night!  Thank you for all the people who make our party the best each and every year.  Your energy, sense of fun and all your hard work is much appreciated by each member of the guild.  Thank you everyone for such a great time.   Diana

Christmas Party

Tonight is our Christmas Party at the Water's Edge at 5:30 with meal starting at 6:30.  Remember to bring your stocking too.
The Block of the Month for December will be Checkerboard. No half square triangles on this one!  The second block will be Four Corners. These are from Quilter's Cache.  Then we just have January left to do and then figure out a setting.  I'm not sure if I will have all of them printed for the party tonight as I am running out of ink in my printer and I might have to bring some to the January meeting.  At least with the above links, you can start sewing if you wish.
As for looking at some pretty things, how about Anna Marie Horner.  I love her fabric and found this cute pin cushion of her's. You will also want to visit this page of her's. I'm really liking this Love Emblem quilt and pillows just for a starter. So check out all of her projects.  See everyone tonight.  Diana