New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop

Hello friends and welcome to my stop on the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop! I am happy to be among new friends as we discover a new wave of awesome quilt bloggers/blogs. Mine is not as new as some, but I wanted to take part and learn some new ways to have a more successful and rewarding blog experience. 

A little about me - I'm Francine - an American expat living in Germany with my pilot hubby and younger 2 of 4 kiddos. We have a couple of years left here and have absolutely loved the experience! When I think of some of the historic places I've visited in the US, Europe makes them seem brand new! In my pre-Germany life, I was a soccer coach and then teacher, but these days I get to spend my time exploring, meeting new friends, sharing a cocktail, and sewing - lucky girl!

The last week or so I've had a couple of finishes which is unusual. Considering how little German homework I've gotten done, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised heh heh.

First, I finished an improv rainbow quilt. This was started as a sample for an improv class I'll be teaching later this year. In fact, you are welcome to join me at Peaks! It's a long weekend full of fun, pampering, relaxation, gourmet meals, amazing scenery and oh yeah - quilting!

Confetti Stars Rainbow

Next up is a quilt that has taken at least 4 years to put together! It is made up of blocks from several Flickr bees. I would've finished much sooner if it wasn't so much fun to choose color schemes. As a result, I ended up after 5 or 6 rounds with 3 separate stacks of blocks in very different colors lol. It's all ready for quilting now.

I have a blogging tip to share with you! This week I discovered a great YouTube video for adding the cute string of social media icons to your blog. First, check out this resource for cute social media icons and then then visit Blogaholic Designs for super easy instructions to add them to your blog! They also have several other helpful tutorials and videos to check out.

I also have a quilting tip/naughty confession. I am ashamed/proud to admit that I use my husband to practice new things. I lovingly made him a practice apron last year and then made this for myself.

reversible apron

Today I decided to try the 1 Hour Basket from Hearts and Bees. Naturally and selflessly, I made the hubs one for his bedside table first. Isn't it cute? Tomorrow I"ll make one for me.

Do you have any quilty naughty confessions?

I do hope you'll visit my hive mates this week! 

Jayne of Twiggy and Opal 

Robyn of Hoops & Thimbles

Shayna of Wife. Mom Creator

Francine

Confetti Rainbow Stars - a rainbow improv experiment

Well I finally can count this as a finish! I must say I spent a whole lot of time thinking about what step to take next in this process. In the end, I probably took a few too many "steps," but it was fun and used up a bunch of solid scraps - win win!

After making the stars into 17" blocks, the  top wasn't quite big enough, so I sashed it in mostly corresponding 2.5" wide solids and then again more randomly around 5" wide so it finishes about 65" x 65" - great for couch snuggling.

My trusty quilt holder here was complaining that he was tired of "too small quilts that he can't sleep under." What nerve! It could have been in response to being told to scoot his big forehead down a little & out of the picture. Can you feel the love? lol

A different perspective..

 The back  - jack. See that pretty red & white dot binding? 

Finally a finish from my FAL Q2 goals!

Confetti Rainbow Stars

Pattern/inspiration:  Confetti Star PP pattern & Paper Pieced Modern Book ("Squareburst" center rainbow block)

Size: 65 x 65"

Fabric: Kona solids including white, scrappy mod prints for stars and red/white dot scraps for binding

Thread: Aurifil #2024 for piecing & quilting


Later gater, FMT

WIP Confetti Rainbow Stars

Hello again! I'm all bloggin 2 days-in-a-row like a regular!

If you're looking for the SMS Giveaway, step right this way!


I've recently been exposed to paper piecing - thanks to the lovely and patient Karen. I don't want to say I've gotten "addicted," because that would imply that I'm good at it. Let's just say I've become "attracted" to printing out cool PP patterns that I see and cutting at them and stacking them on my window sill. (FYI there are a TON of freebies on Craftsy.)

Anyway, I came across this free pattern called Confetti Star, and decided to use some of my rather large pile of charm squares.

I intended to just see where inspiration takes me - which has meant a lot of time just staring at it.

Clearly, there was a problem. I wanted to keep the color wheel arrangement, but the orange & green didn't go well together. Luckily for me, I got a little treat in the mail yesterday!

After a good look through this gem, I spotted a quilt called "Squareburst" (which can also be seen on the Amazon sneak peek page.) Sidebar - how the HECK do you copy a pattern that doesn't actually fit on your printer??? I was struggling with that nonsense for way too long lol . 

Anyway, here's what I came up with. 

Squareburst Color Wheel

 and it fit right in!

Confetti Stars Improv Rainbow

now to stare some more and figure out the rest.. Linking up to WIP Weds @ Freshly Pieced. & Sew Fresh Quilts & WOW

SMS Giveaway Day 2015

Welcome friends! I am happy to welcome you to my blog and the first SMS Giveaway day for this year! I hemmed and hawed and ultimately decided to join in and hopefully jump start my blogging habit!

As a little intro, I am an American currently living with a pilot hubby and the 2 younger of our 4 kiddos in beautiful Germany.  Here's a little something I've been working on for the past couple of days..

an improv, rainbow, paper pieced star throw lol. Descriptive enough for ya?

On to the giveaway! Up for grabs I have 2 cute little Liberty of London themed gifts.

There will be 2 winners! The prize consists of a tiny Hello Kitty Liberty of London themed tin (2.25" x 3.5") and a set of 20 assorted 4" Liberty charms! I've been collecting these during my time here in in Germany and they will be hard to part with! 

Set 1 Hello Kitty in London & Liberty Charms

Set 2 Hello Kitty in London & Liberty Charms

The back of each tin - closeup

 How to enter: Just leave me a comment - any comment! Followers of my blog (or IG: mochawildchild) can have a 2nd entry/comment. That's it! I am happy to ship internationally and the deadline for entries is Sunday - 2 random winners will be chosen Monday.

Happy entering!

walking backwards

Hey stranger!

Boy, I've caught a lot of blog posts recently by people expressing their difficulty in finding time to write. It's so easy to post to instagram and move on! I've been sewing a bit & traveling a bit & planning projects these last few months and haven't made myself sit here and catch up - and the longer you wait, the harder it is!

I think I'm addicted to paper piecing .. at least to searching for beginner patterns and printing them. I have quite a stack going and it's hard to narrow down what to work on next!

Last night I found this free pattern called Confetti Star. I think it will be fun to work on it as I have time and build it into something rainbowy. I pulled out 3 baskets worth of scraps and realized that I am keeping way too many!

Realistically, I will never work with tiny pieces so I started throwing them out and what a great feeling!

Now I just need my son to come and empty my can so I won't be tempted to dig anything (else) out and keep it.

Anyway, back to paper piecing: I found a really cool (and also free) pattern called Graceful Dancer a couple of weeks ago and had it in mind to turn it into something for my daughter.

Happily, it worked out well as a front panel for the messenger bag I needed to make as part of my Finish Along 2015 goals! As I was multi-tasking and actually testing a pattern for the famous Katy of The Littlest Thistle, I can't show the whole thing yet, but it has already made it's first journey and received lots of compliments! Here's a little sneak peek. & the pattern will be released in early April.

FMT