The Blogger's dinner party winner for the month of September is:
Entry #2 (randomly drawn from random.org)

B. Yazoo made these adorable hotpads!

I'll be emailing you shortly, B. Yazoo!

Works in Progress, 9.28.11

Finished projects in the last few weeks:

Book bag for The Love of Solids Swap

(full post, with more photos here)

Kaleidoscope Quilt

(full post here)

Skill Builder Sampler

(still catching up!)

I actually have 7 blocks done so far, but the photo looked nicer with 6. 

I'm using fabrics with circles or polka dots,

and hoping that this comes together nicely in the end.

September do. Good Stitches blocks:

Tutorial for these stars is at Cluck Cluck Sew

Farmer's Wife Sampler:

My favorite block so far, #105 "Wild Goose Chase"--
this block came together easily with paper piecing!

Block #29, "Economy" -- it was so easy I made 2!

New project started:

Swoon!

I'm in love.  This block is amazing.  And huge (wow)!

Happy Wednesday!

Apron!

Holly's Apron

This month's party is coming to a close, and there aren't too many entries --
this means that there are great odds for winning!
Click here to read about it, and enter!

The pattern is from the book

Little Retro Aprons for Kids

by Cindy Taylor Oates.

Linking up to:

Kaleidoscope Quilt

My Kaleidoscope quilt, finished in time for fall!

This quilt was a part of the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along with Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.  I'm WAY late in finishing this, but happy to finally have it done!  And it is perfect for fall -- the colors remind me of the mix of leaf colors against a blue sky.

The fabrics are Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi, mixed with Kona solids.

At 36 X 60, this is a bit of an odd sized quilt.

But it can either live on the back of our living room couch,

or hang on the wall near the bedrooms -- in either place, it will be a perfect fit!

Quilted in an all over meander, in cream.

I almost used green -- maybe next time!

Be sure to check out all of the beautiful, colorful fall entries at Stitched in Color!

Book Bag

Last week I finished this book bag as part of the For the Love of Solids Swap.

I was so excited to have Katie as my partner; 

I feel like I already know her since we're in the same do. Good Stitches circle.

Her mosaic for the swap included one quilt with words,

and one with books -- so I put the two together in a library bag!

 I need to make some more of these . . . 

I've now made and given away THREE!

(here are the first two I made last spring)

It's time to make one to KEEP!

Linking up to:

and

That Thirties Thing

I finished up my mini quilt this weekend for The Love of Solids Swap.

The blocks are a paper pieced pattern called

"That Thirties Thing" from The Quilter's Cache.

The blocks are made from 4 paper pieced sections, and finish at 10.5 inches square.  Originally I had planned to make 6 or 9 blocks for this quilt,

but ran out of time -- the swap deadline is this week!

So I added some sashing, and I turned the pieces around for 2 of the blocks,

to make it a little more interesting.

I finished with straight line quilting, in random diagonal lines.

The Back

I'm so happy to have this little quilt finished!

Linking up to:

Works in Progress Wednesday 9.7.11

It has been weeks since I've posted any WIPs,

but now that fall is here,

and the kiddos are in school (sniff, sniff),

I suppose it's time to start again!

I've jumped in on the Skill Builder Sampler, and am loving it.

After completing the Summer Sampler Series quilt,
I decided that I really liked having a block (or 2) to make every week.
So I'm playing catch up on Leila's quilt along.
I've finished blocks 1, 6, 7, & 8  so far, and plan to work on number 9 tonight.

I'm still working on my For the Love of Solids Swap items.

I finally have a plan, and made some great progress today--

it's AMAZING what I can get done when the girls are at school for 6+ hours!

(I had kind of forgotten what this was like!)

The block is called "That Thirties Thing,"
a paper pieced pattern I found at
The Quilter's Cache -- a GREAT source for block ideas.
My partner likes green, and on her blog recently I've seen pops of orange,
so I hope she likes this mini quilt!

Mini Quilt Top

Front and Back

I've made a couple more Farmer's Wife Blocks, too -- both paper pieced.

The only way to go, in my opinion!

Block #97 (Waste Not) and #92 (Streak of Lightning)

And finally, I'm hosting the Blogger's Dinner Party this month for Kate,

and am working on aprons.  Here's a sneak peak.

Click here to read more:

Linking up to:

September Blogger's Dinner Party!

Welcome to the September Blogger's Dinner Party!

I'm hosting this month's Party for Kate, of Needle and Spatula,

while she's busy moving across the country.

If you're visiting from her blog, a warm welcome to you!

I hope that you'll look around a bit, and come back and enter something you've made for your kitchen or dining room.

This month, I'll be making aprons!

Isn't cooking or baking with an apron on so much more fun?

My daughters sure think so!

I'm working my way through some apron books by Cindy Taylor Oates--

her patterns are great, and they make such cute gifts (think Christmas!).

Here are the giveaway items, which will go to one lucky, randomly chosen winner!

Sew Liberated, by Meg McElwee
(super cute apron pattern inside!)

AND

Kitchen Themed Fabrics--great for napkins, aprons, etc!
("Lizzy Dish Silverware" by Lizzy House,
and "Juicy" by Michael Miller)

Here's how to enter:


1.  Write a new blog post (written during the month of the party) showing off your item(s) - tell us about the process of making them, who they were for, a special story about using them, or whatever you like!  Feel free to share a recipe for our dinner party, too, if you like.  Entries for each month will be open until the 28th of that month.

2.  Link back to the party using the button - either in the body of your post or in your sidebar (or both!).  Just copy the html below and paste it into the html window for your post or a html gadget for your sidebar. 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.needleandspatula.com/p/bloggers-dinner-party.html"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZA6LmEqTZuMlKTRBROnA75qPXU6Vr9iK5dwY7Djyyj3nqHRNBwafwkG9vDjxf8HBXUIX0K_gUldyjYfDrLg6ZJy7Uqx8oFeKJQ-DNLJyBRVt7j_m5bBkmHhtf-G8wxeunnqFHKhnhL-M/s320/Button.JPG" alt="Bloggers' Dinner Party" width="175"></a></div>

3.  Come back and link up at the linky below!  Make sure to use a link to the specific post for your entry, and then you will be able to pick which picture you want to feature as well.

4.  If you like, hop over to the Bloggers' Dinner Party Flickr pool and share your photos there as well. 

5.  Make sure to visit others' posts too and leave comments - a key ingredient for a great dinner party is good conversation!