Mouse in the House Ornament

Inspired by the HOME icon on my iPhone I drafted this cute ornament.

One drafted block, one cute mouse.....

All the pieces are foundation sewn to the other side.

3 1/2" unfinished block.

Layered with Pellon interfacing, and a backing square, and sewn.

Turned right side out.

Sweet ornament took about 20 minutes to make.

There is a Mouse in the House!

(With outdoor cats we no longer get mice indoors.)

En Provence Mystery Quilt 2016

The Bonnie Hunter Quiltville 2016 Mystery Quilt is called En Provence.

These are Bonnie's colors plus neutrals. 

She has DARK PURPLE, LIGHT PURPLE, GREEN, YELLOW, BRIGHT PINK and NEUTRALS.

 I have chosen to change the colors a little this year. I'm going with beach colors.

My neutrals are all creamy without too many contrasting distractions.

This is my white sandy beach.

Instead of YELLOW I am using tan for all the glorious shades of wet sand where waves wash ashore.

Instead of DARK PURPLE I am using brown for all the palm tree trunks and beach huts.

Instead of GREEN I'm using bright turquoise and rich blues for the deep sea.

Instead of LIGHT PURPLE I'm using light turquoise for the shallow waters and sunny skies.

And finally instead of BRIGHT PINK I'm using some palm tree greens. I haven't decided on just one so I might mix all of them in.

This is how they all play together.

First clue in progress.

I love 4-patch blocks and this will add sparkle to the quilt.

Lots more to sew......

Linking to En Provence Mystery Monday Clue #1.

Linking to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Naughty or Nice

Have you been NAUGHTY or NICE this year?

You've been NAUGHTY? Then reach into the bag and pull out your gift.....

Wine stoppers...?

Alcohol minis...(adults only)....

Or a bag with some pocket change....mostly pennies.

You've been NICE? Then reach into the bag and pull out your gift......

An ornament....

Cash...(better than pennies and nickels).....

Nail polish.....

Coin case or business card case.......

I ordered a bundle of gift bags to fill with goodies. At our family holiday party last year I let everyone choose NAUGHTY or NICE. The kids chose first and then I added the alcohol to the NAUGHTY bag. The adults quickly became interested!!

Which will you choose?

This fun idea can be used with any age group since the rewards could be anything, from toys to gift cards. After the holiday party I stored the remaining empty gift bags in the larger cloth bags to be used this year. Now to get busy filling them with goodies......

Finish it Friday link up.

Double Irish Chain--Leader Ender Quilt

Bonnie Hunter from the Quiltville blog has a theory that you can make more quilts and be efficient about it by using pieces of one quilt while working on another quilt. Sounds confusing and it is a bit but it works. She has written a book about it called More Adventures with Leaders Enders. I gave it a try and chose the Double Irish Chain pattern.

This is how it works: I had a stack of light batik fabrics and a stack of aboriginal fabrics by my sewing machine ready to sew into pairs each time I finish piecing whatever else I was working on. Quilters are big on chain piecing so once a chain of something was done I used a pair of these as the period to the chain. The pairs then got sewn into 4 patch units and into blocks etc.

This is one block. Each block has a yellow center.

I have ONE pirate in the quilt for fun!

The rows were sitting in a UFO pile for a LONG time.

I took the rows to NC to work on and assembled them there.

The fabrics work well together. Who knew batiks could play so nicely with aboriginal prints?

The quilt top is 95 x 95.

I like the purple border with the dark print.

Rambo looks HUGE on the quilt, haha.

I have no idea how I'm going to quilt something this large. 

I'm thinking about having it machine quilted by a pro.

For now it's a finished quilt top!

Finish it Friday link up.