Good Neighbors Pincushion Party {and a giveaway}

Welcome to the party!  Have you been following along this month with the Good Neighbors Pincushion Party?!  If you scroll to the bottom of this post, you will find direct links to the stops before mine.  The pincushions made with Amanda Jean's (aka Crazy Mom Quilts) new fabric line from Connecting Threads have all been fantastic.  It's no wonder given the beautiful prints to work with!

When Amanda told me about her new fabric line, I was SO happy for her.  When she asked me to participate in the blog hop, I didn't hesitate to say YES!  When I started blogging in 2009, Amanda's was one of the first quilt blogs I discovered.  Her generous spirit of sharing her love and knowledge of quilting with others hooked me from the start (not to mention the gorgeous scrappy quilts she makes).  She is just as sweet and generous in person too, as I am fortunate to experience at least once a year at retreat.

Amanda's first line of fabric is the perfect combination of happy, cheerful prints and lower volume fabrics that all play well with each other and mix beautifully with other fabric lines.  There are so many possibilities, and I immediately wanted to chop up the charm pack and start with scraps!  However, I took some time thinking about what type of pincushion I wanted to make before pulling out my rotary cutter.  I may have gone a little overboard in the pincushion making made more than one pincushion before settling on this design to share with you today.

 
It's difficult to pick a favorite print, but I must say these teal blue colors speak to me.  I love the bright yellow center here to break up the blues and how it all looks stitched down on the gray stripe.

The Peaks print is available in five bright colors.  I selected four of them for the hexies in this cushion.  All the pincushions are stuffed with crushed walnut shells.  I like the weight the shells provide.

This EPP block is stitched onto one of the lovely X's print.  I ordered a couple of yards of this in the teal color way!  I see this showing up in quite a few quilt projects.

And a third pincushion with dots, stripes, X's and peaks stitched onto a linen background.

Amanda Jean's Good Neighbors fabric line is exclusive to Connecting Threads and can be found here.   As you can see above, the line offers a great variety of prints in cheerful colors as well as "low volume" fabrics.  I love that one of the prints is available in 104" wide, making it perfect for quilt backs.

The Connecting Threads site also has a free download, patterns, quilt kits, fabric bundles and coordinating solids for the Good Neighbors collection all in one handy link.   I think I need the coffee cup pattern!

 When preparing this blog post,  I noticed these cushions didn't use the cross stitch print.  If I had to pick a favorite, the teal cross stitch print would be mine.  I must have used it in one of the other three pin cushions I made!

Connecting Threads has generously offered a charm pack to one of my readers (open to U.S. and Canada).  Leave a comment below and I will pick a winner on September 30th.  I would love to know which Good Neighbors print is your favorite.  Again, the entire line can be found here.

Congratulations Amanda Jean!  You knocked it out of the park!  Be sure to check out the other lovely pincushions made.

September  1     Amanda Jean  -  Crazy Mom Quilts

September  2     Anna  -  Noodlehead

September  3     Mary  -  Mary on Lake Pulaski

September  4     Svetlana  -  S.O.T.A.K Handmade

September  5     Debbie  -  Esch House Quilts

September  6     Holly -  Bijou Lovely

September  7     Carla  -  Grace and Favour

September  8     Faith -  Fresh Lemon Quilts

September  9     Vanessa  -  V and Co.

September 10    Anna  -  Thimbleanna

September 11    Krista  -  Poppy Print Creates

September 12    Erin -  Why Not Sew

September 13    Lee  -  May Chappell

September 14    Alex  -  Teaginny Designs

September 15    Cheryl   -  Naptime Quilter

September 16    Penny -  SewTakeAHike

September 17    Amy  -   During Quiet Time

September 18    Debbie  -  A Quilter's Table

September 19    Anne  -  Springleaf Studios

September 20    Melissa Corry -  Happy Quilting Melissa

September 21    Amber  -  One Shabby Chick

September 22    Nettie -   A Quilt is Nice

September 23    Adrianne  -  Little Bluebell

September 24    Cindy  -  Live a Colorful Life

September 25    Amy  -  Diary of a Quilter

September 26    Chase  - Quarter Inch Mark

September 27    Rene'  -  Rene' Creates  {that's me!}

September 28    Erin   -   House on Hill Road

September 29    Nicole  -  Modern Handcraft

September 30    Teri  -   Connecting Threads

Around the World Blog Hop

My MCM Bee friend Linda tagged me in the Around the World Blog Hop.  Welcome to those of you here for the first time as well as frequent visitors ;-)  Linda and I live in the same state but have yet to meet.  We plan on doing that in Austin next February at QuiltCon!

This quilting community has introduced me to so many wonderful friends - some I've even been fortunate to meet in real life.  Blogging provides that initial means of getting to know one another, and this blog hop is a great way of introducing bloggers you may not be familiar with.

So here are some questions asked to facilitate the process:

WIPs on the design wall

What are you working on?

There is always more than one project going on at a time in my sewing room.  My spiderweb bee blocks are taking up one whole design wall and I'm making this quilt a priority even though it is for me to keep.

extremely old WIP on second design wall

Usually if the quilt is for me it gets put on the back burner like this Cowboy/Cowgirl quilt that I started three years ago at retreat.   I put the blocks up on my second design wall in the hope of motivating me to finish.

M-5 Mother's Point

A new(isn) project is a Dear Jane quilt in all Kaffe Fassett fabrics similar to this beauty.  It has been on my list for a very long time and I have stopped and started working on it more than once.  During conversations with friends I find I am not alone when it comes to big projects such as this.

M-12 Hopscotch

For that reason, my sister Michelle, good friend Cindy and I are starting what we call Choose Your Own Blockalong.  While I am making blocks for a Dear Jane quilt, Michelle and Cindy have decided to sew blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.   In the spirit of accountability, on Mondays (starting today) we are each posting (at least) two blocks from our respective projects.  Feel free to play along if you need some motivation for an ongoing quilt project - it doesn't have to be either of these.  It's fun sewing with friends and seeing weekly progress.

How does my work differ from others?

I don't know…does it?!  Like most everyone, I make what I like.  My tastes have changed over the years, and my skills have improved which translates into evolution of quilts made.  There are times when I would like to ask for all my earlier quilts back from their recipients so I can redo them ;-)  I learn something from each quilt made.  Surely, I'm not alone in this.

Why do I create what I do?

Home…. quilt for a special family

For family:  Most of my quilts are gifted to family and friends. You can read more about the Home quilt for my son and DIL here.

Baby quilt for charity

Charity:  There was a time when I made mini quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, but they are no longer active.  The latest charity quilt I made was just finished this weekend and will go to our local Beta Center.

Sewing Circle DWR

Guild challenges:  Our OrlandoMQG encouraged participation in the Double Wedding Ring challenge.  Normally I would not contemplate such a quilt, but I did participate by making a small DWR.  I'm excited to say this Sewing Circle was invited to join Victoria's DWR Traveling Exhibit with the Original Sewing & Quilting Expo.

Peace, Love and Happiness - 50th birthday

Milestones:  I wanted to write a pattern for my peace quilt as a turning 50 goal and photograph the quilt at the top of our favorite hike on my 50th birthday.

Have a Heart celebrating 30 year anniversary

This quilt was made for my husband to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and was inspired by a Pandora jewelry ad.

Liberated just for me

Just because:  Isn't this a good enough reason?!  It should be, but I don't use it enough.

Hope you enjoyed this stop on the blog tour.  I am tagging three awesome bloggers for next week so be sure you visit them.

Michele of Nostalgic Cafe is my guild buddy, QuiltCon roomie and fellow founding OrlandoMQG officer.  If you are not a regular reader of her blog, you don't know what you're missing!

Jessica of  A Little Gray made the quilt I received in my very first Flickr swap.  I was happy to meet her recently in Nashville during Sew Down.

I have followed Nina Lise of Mrs. Moen ever since I  read her Blogger's Quilt Festival entry in 2009 shortly after I started my blog.  Nine Lise is an incredible artist, and her words on that particular day especially drew me in.   As she lives in Norway, I don't know that I will get the opportunity to meet her in person.  I will settle for her lovely inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by,