heeeeeeeeeeeelllllllpppp

Hi friends! Are you in gear getting your Christmas projects all done? I'm just starting - yikes! BUT I had an idea.. a genius idea... a genius idea that I'm going to share with you.

I'm making twin quilts for my 2 oldest sons. Considering the date, I know there's no way I'll be finished in time for Christmas. So.. they're getting their quilt tops for Christmas and after they're unwrapped and admired on Christmas morning, I will promptly snatch them back and finish em up later. I wish this was the first time my children had received the promise, preview or picture of a gift, heh heh.

Anyhow, on to the purpose of this post. I've been collecting African fabrics & charms for a few years with no clear plan for them. This year, I'd like to give a special friend of mine a quilt made from these fabrics. I'm just having trouble deciding on a pattern. Originally, I had this idea in mind

 

but I'm not sure which background color would look best. What do you think? Yellow? Black? Tan? Cream? White? I don't know! Alternatively, I was thinking of just thinly sashing the blocks and then using wider borders to bring it up to 60" x 60" (pretend that the one block has 9 squares, not 16.) Any advice is appreciated!francine

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from sunny Arizona where we've come to spend some time with family and celebrate Thanksgiving. It's been a LONG time since I've experienced weather warm enough have dinner outside in late November - I miss it!

I'm all full and rested and ready to go out and visit some local quilt shops tomorrow - haven't had a chance to do that here and I'm so excited!!

I didn't go out and fight the madness, but I did get some great deals today at M is for Make (20% off using code BlackFriday) and Fat Quarter Shop (25% off using code Jingle)

and the real reason for this post - I had forgotten to pick a winner of my extra book.
Random.org picked number 10:
 krislovesfabricNovember 14, 2012 8:43 AM

Looks like a great book but those different covers would have tripped me up too :) Thanks for sharing your current projects :)

I'll be in touch!! Later gators - I'm off to enjoy this 80 degree day  :)

Let's Get Acquainted, shall we?

Hello friends who are visiting for the first time! I am so happy to be part of this fantastic hop! I've discovered quite a few new blogs throughout this summer and fall & I'm a little sad to see it end. Fellow bloggers to visit this week:
Cynthia from A Quilter by Night
         Stephanie from Smalltown Dreamz
         Cynthia from Quilt Doodle Doodles
         Diane from From Blank Pages
         Laura from Waffle Kisses
         Mary Ann from Rocknquilts
         Angela from Angela B
         Jaime from Stitches to Sprinkles
         Allegory from {sew} Allegorical
         Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts
         Lynne from Bouts Choisis
         Nat from Made in Home
         Francine from Mocha Wild Child
         Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts
         Stacey from The Tilted Quilt

Let's see... my name is Francine and I live in a tiny Pennsylvania town called Nottingham. It's a big enough town for a post office, but a small enough town that there's NEVER a line - sweet! I've been quilting for about 15 years, but I never followed any rules until maybe 5 years or so ago. Know what happened? My results got a lot less holey and ugly lol. That leads me to the most important thing I've learned about quilting - the 1/4" rule... I used to think that 1/4" was too big and a waste of fabric and didn't realize that was the reason my quilts often pulled apart. My poor niece has a flannel quilt that has so many seams open it looks like a rag quilt darnit! She (& her parents) can never say anything bad about it, but she is on my list for a new quilt someday before she's grown.

My fave quilting tool are these little thingies for marking HST lines. Drawing the actual sewing lines works much more accurately for me.






My blogging tip is this : if you haven't posted in a week, month or year - don't apologize! We all have a life and you shouldn't feel guilty about it! I hadn't posted in a month, oops! Sorry.  Just kidding - I've been working on baby quilts and swaps and swaps and swaps. Good grief - Flickr has taken over my life!



1. Modern She Made - this swap  is coming to an end and here's what I came up with using Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Kona Celery & Essex Linen in Navy: A lined tote bag with quilted pocket and a mini quilt.

2. Sewn Together Bee - this will be my first foray into paper piecing - yikes! My bee mate sent really awesome instructions and has even offered to walk me through it on Skype - Flaun is incredible.

I'll share more later.. I also spent some time on STUPID Amazon buying books. I bought this book a week or so ago

and then the next time I was on Amazon, I had this book in my suggested box, so I bought it

So, the other night, I cozied up on the couch - ready with my trusty cup o' clips for marking faves

Have you noticed anything funny yet? It's the same ^%$#@ BOOK!!! Would anyone be interested in this book as a giveaway? Leave me a comment & I'll pick a random winner this Saturday. Thanks for sticking around!

I'll leave you with this - a sign I saw the last time I visited Jack in the Box in TX

 love, Francine

Winner!

Thanks to all for the encouraging and fun comments! I decided to just keep the charm pack and make one of the suggestions!


heh heh just kidding. From 89 comments, our winner is lucky # 27..I'm emailing ya now!

Petit Design Co.October 10, 2012 12:20 PM

such a cute little witch and her little pet spider too. This would make such a cute little pillow.

Smooches!

Francine

Leafs Me Happy

Hello friends, old and new, and welcome to my stop on this awesome blog hop! It's been really cool seeing (and pinning) the creative fall projects. Joining me today are:

Wednesday 10

Quilter in the Closet

SewMuch2Luv

Peanut's Patchwork

Quilting Lines

Mochawildchild (you're here)

Ariane Quilts

Lily Patch Quilts

Cindy's Crafty Creations

Hill Valley Quilter

Count it *all* JOY!!!
Rose Creations

Sew We Quilt

When I think of fall, I can't help but to get excited about Halloween. In Pennsylvania, the changing leaves are particularly beautiful, but Halloween means CANDY and costumes and bonfires... ahh.  My 12" block features a silly old witch named Koko (coincidentally this is also one of my daughter's many nicknames.)

I used a charm pack that's been sitting in my drawer since last year - Haunted Mansion by Moda. I wanted to add all sorts of bells and whistles to Koko's boots, but my husband threw in his 2 cents and said that would be too elfish. I only ask him when I'm desperate ;-).

I still had the metallic Gutermann thread out and was able to get a better picture this time. What did I do differently? Heck if I know - I'm surprised they're better because the lighting is so muted on this dreary fall day.

How about a giveaway? I hope it's not too ghetto, but how would you like the rest of this charm pack? I only used about 10 charms. If you'd like to win it, just leave a comment and tell me what you'd make. I'll pick a random winner on Saturday.

Haunted Mansion by Moda

Francine

Monday

What's happenin' friends? I don't know about you, but I actually got a good bit of quilting done this weekend. It's amazing what you get done when you're not sitting on the deck drinking cocktails with your gal pals.

I finished up my mini - due today (whew) for ALQS7. I did a 12" block in Kona coal and Tonga batik scraps. I quilted in in variegated metallic thread, but it was a &*#@$ to photograph.  Anyhow, there are some great submissions - hope someone likes it!

My other news:
I've never been to a quilting retreat before  - I'm so nervous! Sweet Lynne sent me a note and encouraged me to go for it so I am.. I am relieved to hear that I won't be the only newbie. I just hope I don't go scare anyone when I start running around sticking my camera in folks' faces.

Peace,
Francine

Why, hello there!

Long time, no chat! Why? Cause of all those reasons in my last post, a trip to Kansas to visit my bro's family including my sorta new nephew (18 mo. & so chubby I pulled a muscle lifting him) who I had not yet met, and a little bit of working, packing, swapping, and quilting.

I thought I'd start to catch up real quick..
First on my list is that I agreed to jump into October for the bee I'm in: Sewn Together. It's the first one I've ever been in and my month was supposed to be next August, so I hadn't decided on fabric or a block. After spending a few hours stewing over it and laying fabric all over the floor I remembered that I HAD picked my fabric, DUH. It's Silent Cinema by Free Spirit - like it?

It's a bit grayer than this pic shows, and I absolutely love it - my block is Drunk Love by Denyse Schmidt. I love all the variations of this block - can't wait to see what I get!

Also I've got a date (10/10) - for which I should probably get ready. I just saw Norma's post - it's freakin' amazing - I don't care who ya are!







And lastly for now, I was just over visiting Nicole's blog: MamaLoveQuilts and learned of a brand new swap at City Stitches! She's still got room - check it out!

I gotta get back to packaging up my bee blocks, have a super awesome night and thanks for stopping by!
Francine

Things I do instead of blogging

1. Read other people's blogs
2. Facebook
3. Look through quilting books and make plans and lists of quilts I'd like to make
4. Flickr - look at my friends' latest uploads
5. Flickr - find new groups/swaps to join and sign up
6. Promptly forget about signing up until I get a "FR" email (friendly reminder)
7. Cocktails on the deck with my 2 gal pals - should be #1
8. Shop online for fabric - receive pkgs - hide from hubby - deny knowledge about CC charges
9. Quilt
10. Take pics of quilting and fabric packages for blog
11. Think about blogging

Man this takes some commitment! I'm grateful to those who blog regularly and keep me distracted, entertained and inspired. Since it ain't Jan 1, I don't have to resolve to blog more regularly yet - score!

How do you stay active on your blog?

Francine

Follower Friday

Hello friends! What a busy week! I'm finally ready to mail out prizes, and in the middle of work and packing up, I got a little note from Jennifer over at Knotted-Thread and I'm being featured! Check it out if ya get a chance, and contact Jennifer if you'd be interested in a feature yourself! She also has some awesome tutorials and lots of pics of completed quilts for your inspiration!

Francine

WOW!

Hi friends! Well lookie here! 224 followers, wow! I'm so overwhelmed by the response to the last

  How overwhelmed you might wonder? 

I'm giving away all the prizes! 

I had to go through and delete my own comments so as to make the count (314) and placement correct....and according to Mr. Random Generator, the winners are:


87 HilachasAugust 26, 2012 8:34 AM

I'm a new follower Thanks for the opportunity to win your giveaway.

1 beaquilterAugust 25, 2012 10:30 AM

I'm a follower

296 CynthiaT59September 2, 2012 9:37 PM

I am putting on borders on a quilt for an auction at church. I have to get to JoAnn fabrics tomorrow to see if I can get something for the outer 6 inch border...I just don't have enough fabric...ugh! (I'm whining inside my brain!) Thanks for the giveaway! I enjoyed your blog

217 MargaretAugust 29, 2012 12:25 AM

I am a follower. Thanks for the give away. I love blog hops. I get to find all kinds of new blogs to follow.

I've just returned from the USOpen and I actually got to sit about 6 feet from Venus & Serena! I'll be celebrating that all weekend! Next week I'll be sharing about

MOCHAWILDCHILD'S 2012 QUILT SHOP HOP ACROSS AMERICA

featuring the awesome quilt shops I visited this summer during our travels

Cheers!

Francine

Party Time!

Hello Friends, and welcome to Mochawildchild! Today's giveaway includes one of the following.

3.5" Journal with gridlines

Beachy Hobo Kit

Black & White Hobo Kit

Moda - A Breath of Avignon 2 charm packs + yardage

I can't wait to get back to the Blog Hop and visit some new blogs and enter some giveaways - fingers are crossed! Please leave me your blog info in your comment and I'll visit you too!

To enter:
1: Tell me what crafty thing you're working on this week (1 entry)
2: Subscribe to my blog and leave me a comment saying you did (1 entry)

Maximum : 2 entries per person!

 please make sure I can reach you - (leave your e-mail address in the comment if you are a no-reply blogger or are not sure)

I will ship internationally.

 Giveaway ends September 3 by 5pm EST and a random winner (or 2) will be chosen!
Good luck!!

Note: If I get to 200 followers before the giveaway is over, I'll throw in another prize for an additional winner!

August Swaps & a trip

Hi friends!

I'm headed out today on another family trip - feels like we haven't been home much at all this summer! 
So, are there any good quilt shops around Raleigh, or Charlotte, NC or Savannah, GA?  I left room in my suitcase!

On another note: I am so EFFICIENT! It's rare, but sometimes it happens and I have to brag. I'm in another around of NuBees and I was recently accepted into Sewn Together - my first real bee. For the NuBee blocks I stuck with the same style as last month- the Indiana Puzzle

Half Moon Modern & Bella White 

Half Moon Modern & Bella White 

Benartex - Crazy Daisy

KS Good Fortune & Riley Blake

It's funny, I OFTEN see bloggers showcasing pictures of the recent bee block they've completed and they then admit that the block is "late."  I'm too paranoid of getting kicked out, so I'm on time so far, heh heh. For August, Sorrel requested a "color cluster" block. This is a new one for me and I'm glad she said not to square this sucker up! The scraps are 2.5" and smaller

Francine

&^*&#(!!&*(((@@@!!

Hey there! I've spent the better part of today making myself a new iPad case! When I first got my iPad a few months ago, I bought a cause with an integrated keyboard to keep myself from becoming a proficient "pecker," cause I can type already!

Anyway, my keyboard case does not have any storage, so I keep losing things like the charger, card reader, etc.. actually there's no etc, that's all I've got and I've had to buy the crap at least 3 times.

Fresh Lemons to the rescue! I noticed this tutorial because it answers my storage needs.. I got my fabric - a faux corduroy print and kona charcoal and got to work. Tada!

 Notice anything? My pocket liner is jacked up. I took this thing apart twice and put it back together and noticed it was still wrong. The liner is all there, but it's reversed somehow. CRAP!  And it's smiling at me.. I'll have to try it again someday soon, right now I'm too annoyed.. off to find some wine

What would you do? I'm thinking of giving it away as a gift & dare the recipient to complain about the pocket ;-) and more importantly, DOES SEWING MAKE YOU CURSE?

linking up to 

Francine