Guess Who's One!

Well, we had a special birthday over the weekend. Someone special turned one years old. Our sweet Belvedere is now one... I even baked him a birthday pup cake. My hubby just shook his head and smiled. Yes, I have turned into the crazy dog lady in my neighborhood... I admit it. Belvedere has me totally wrapped around his little paw, and he knows it.  Now I didn't have the full blown puppy birthday party with puppy party hats... so I'm not totally off the edge or lost the cheese off my cracker... I have to admit it was fun just making a homemade muffin for my big ol' sloppy basset hound. I found the recipe HERE. I did leave the vanilla out, I just didn't think Belvedere would really mind. I also cut the recipe in half. He sure loved the treat but wasn't too sure about the birthday candle.

 I also had fun this weekend making a new design that features a sweet little basset hound going on a truck ride. He's on his way to the 4th of July parade! I have two versions of this pattern, one is on a striped tea towel and the other is an adorable mini quilt. It was a fun project to whip up to decorate for the 4th of July. I'm planning on leaving mine up... it's a cute patriotic design. I just love decorating with seasonal items. So here is how I made this summertime design featuring Belvedere the basset hound...

I was super blessed with a bundle of wool from Marcus Fabrics. I thought some of the colors would be perfect for this project. You don't have to use wool for these designs, you can also use fabrics from your stash! I traced the design elements onto my Wonder Under. I've trace two of everything because I am working on two projects.

I cut all the pieces out using my applique scissors from OLFA. Let me just say, my boys better leave these scissors alone! You all know what I mean.... the last thing I want this baby to cut is some insulation or oily old twine in the garage. These scissors are super sharp and perfect for cutting applique designs.

I have layered all my pieces referring to the pattern placement on the pattern. Notice how the flag pieces over lap. (I laided the white piece first, then the red strips, blue piece and gold flag pole) I carefully ironed everything into place.

Because I am working with wool, I decided to do my stitching with Lana Wool from Aurifil. But you can you a dark brown thread too. It's up to you.

I like to machine stitch my buttonhole stitch instead of hand stitching with wool. I'm not a great hand stitcher and am still practicing. But this can certainly be a hand stitch wool project.

I embroidered Belvedere's face using Valdini 12 wt pearl cotton.

~Parade Day!~

I have ~Parade Day~ on display in my mud room off the entryway. I don't always put tea towels on display in the kitchen. I like to tuck them here and there around my home. Draped out of a basket, used as a table runner or as shown here, draped over the door of my pie safe.

I also decided to put together a mini quilt featuring the same design that is on the tea towel. I also used wool for my applique pieces but you could use fabric too. The flag design overlaps a little into the border. I think it looks cute so I left it. 

I machine appliqued around all of the pieces before I layered it with the batting and backing. 

My mini quilt is on display on a side table in my dining room. I added my basset hound salt and pepper shakers to the display for an added touch. If you look closely at my mini quilt you can see that I have quilted stars along with my meandering stitches. I also used yo-yo's for the truck's tires. I like the added dimension that the yo-yo's add to the design.

~ I Woof the USA! ~

Both designs are currently available in my Etsy shop as instant downloads. The tea towel design is called 'Parade Day' and the mini quilt is called 'I Woof the USA!'.

I hope that you enjoy these designs as much as I have making them!

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

June's Block Done in Wool....

  

I have been enjoying working with wool for my second version of this year's BOM. I've been having Snow Much Fun! This month's block is a skiing snowman. As some of you may know, I live very close to Buck Hill Ski Resort. My boys spent a lot of time there skiing and snowboarding. I always knew winter was right around the corner as soon as the snow making machines were put in place on the slopes. When it's cold enough, snow is being made and if the wind is just right it will snow in our neighborhood on a starry night. By the time it starts getting colder, I'm ready for snow. I'm like a little kid and just can't wait! I have been known to drive by Buck Hill just to see the snow and get a taste of winter again. I know our little hill is nothing compared with the snow covered mountains out west. But I do love when it's covered with snow. After the kids would spend the day playing at Buck Hill, I would greet them at home with hot chocolate and popcorn and sometimes I would make a batch of Buck Hill Cookies for them.

Buck Hill Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

1 egg

1 cup veggie oil

2 tsp vanilla

 3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup quick oats

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp. cream of tartar

12 oz bag of chocolate chips

1 cup rice krispies

Mix sugars, egg, oil, butter and vanilla thoroughly. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda, cream of tartar, chocolate chips and rice krispies. Cover and chill the dough. Drop by teaspoons 2 inches apart onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Makes 5-6 dozen cookies. At Christmas, I usually put in red and green M&M's into the cookie dough.

Enjoy!

I thought I had taken more pictures of this month's block and the process using the wool, but I was lax.. Making the block is the same as for with the flannel quilt, I am using Primo Plaids from Marcus Fabrics and wool from my 'wool' stash.

Trace all of the applique shapes onto freezer paper and iron it onto your wool pieces. Then cut all the pieces out. 

Use a button hole stitch to machine stitch the wool pieces onto the background block. I am using 12wt Lana Wool thread from Aurifil. (color - 8087 brown) I'm using a regular 50wt in my bobbin thread. I'm using a 75/11 needle... 

I really like the combo of the wool with the Primo Plaids.   To finish these cute designs, I embellished my squares with some special buttons from Just Another Button Company. I do have these buttons available in my Etsy Shop. Pattern can be found on the Quilt Doodle Designs Website. June's block is a Free download this month only.  I will not be sewing my buttons onto my quilt top until after I have it all done and quilted. This BOM will be offered the first of every month. Like always, it's FREE for the month that the block is out, then there's a small fee if you have to play catch up to get the block. To make sure that you don't miss any of it,  join my mailing list. Not only will you get all of the BOM 2018 postings and updates, but you will also hear about all sorts of other fun quilty projects.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy and Belvedere

Minnesota Winter Wonderland QAL - June

So with this month's section, I am dreaming of the cold days of winter and thinking of our Minnesota boys who dream of hockey. Watching hockey, playing hockey.... be it on skates in an arena or on the lake in boots, Minnesota boys love hockey. Being the good mom I am, I tried really hard to get my boys into hockey, but neither one liked it. But now that they are grown, they love going to a Minnesota Wild game to cheer the local team on. They both have also been known to play a game or two of 'boot' hockey. I love my Minnesota boys. I am using the same background fabrics as I did for my Cozy Cabin and Big Tree and Fir Tree block. There is some flexibility with this strip if you are making it scrappy. The background can be a little different if you choose to do that. You could use a different blue. But do keep in mind the over all color choices you have used so far on your quilt. I have also used two different grey fabrics for my block, but it's ok to use just one if you want. A fat quarter of grey is more than enough for this section. 
Have you ever wondered??? ... how many 2 1/2" squares can you cut out of a fat quarter? This is handy to know since we are working with 2 1/2" squares.

I have my pattern and my fabric chosen.

I have decided to make my block scrappy using fabric that
I have set aside for this quilt from my stash.

Sewing corner to corner to form my triangle blocks...

Following the block layout for my Northern Hockey Skates
block I sew my squares together...

Here I am tracing the skate blade onto my heat n bond...

Lay your blade onto your block and center along the
bottom of the skate boot. I have sewn the 2 1/2" x 10 1/2" strip
to my block since the blade overlaps onto that area. 

Using dark brown thread I machine applique a buttonhole stitch
along the edge of the skate blade.

Northern Hockey Skates
June's section

 If you blog about it, please email me a link so that I can attach it to the Pinterest Board I have going for the BOM 2014. I hope you have fun with this section of the mystery quilt. It can easily be done in a weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's skates! As you can see with the quilt layout that the quilt is coming along nicely. We will be working on the next section on July 14th, mark your calendars. Remember you can share pictures of your quilts so far thru Instagram... tag me @quiltdoodledesigns with the hashtag quiltdoodledesignsqal
If you don't have an Instagram account, feel free to send me the pictures, I'll make sure to share with the group. You can also post them to the Quilt Doodle Designs Facebook page.

Happy Quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

Block layout so far.... I'm lovin' the skates!
Haven't joined the fun yet and want to? The complete pattern can be purchased
HERE

Farm Delivery Table Runner

I just got back a couple weeks ago from spring market in Portland. It was so much fun! (I'll have to gather all my pictures and share them with you!)I had several new items that I showed at Market... One of my new patterns that I had on display was my new Farm Delivery applique pattern. It features a cow arriving on the farm and a hound dog chasing the farm truck with a big 'welcome'! I enjoyed drawing this design up and have been having fun with it. Did you know you can do more with my applique designs then just tea towels? I know many of my designs are shown on a tea towel almost all of the time when I stitch them up. But these designs can be used in different ways. Last November I showed my 100 Blocks snowman block done on a table runner. The basic pattern for that table runner is available as a free download on my website. Well, using that basic  pattern, I made an adorable Farm Delivery table runner. I really like how versatile this table runner pattern is... I love the 12" plain block to feature any applique design in. I love that I can switch up the fabrics and have a totally different look for a different occasion. 

For this table runner I used scraps from my scrap basket and found the perfect fabrics for the applique design. For the table runner I used my Bonnie and Camille fabric that was left over from my Sunflower Fields quilt I made for market.

Here I am sewing on a scrappy binding that I made out of all my little bits that were left over from the big quilt. 

It's not often that I actually use any of my creations. Many of my items end up in the trunk show to never be used since I can't risk getting them stained or mucked up. But I actually made this runner with the thought that after market, it is mine. All mine.... I am just so in love with the colors of this fabric collection.

You can see how I just did a meander for the background quilting.

In the plain square blocks, I quilted a sweet little flower. I'm very pleased with the results.

It just tickles me pink knowing I was able to whip this project up with just bits and pieces I had left over from other projects! This design can also be done with wool for you wool workers out there. I think is would be adorable! I haven't done any quilting since coming back from market, so this afternoon Belvedere and I will spend the afternoon in the studio. I have a project I'm working on for the 4th of July, it'll be here before we know it! I'm looking forward to showing it to you when I'm done. Belvedere's all excited because it features a sweet little basset hound.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy quilting,

Cindy and Belvedere

Free Table Runner Pattern can be found
HERE

PDF Copy 'Farm Delivery'  $4.00

June's Block!

Happy June! Here in Minnesota we went right from snow to 80 degree weather. We had no spring! Our weather right now feels more like July, then June. But that's okay, we are enjoying the warmth. It's officially ice tea and lemonade season! I'm also happy to break out the flip flops and sandals! 

This month's block is a fun one. A skiing snowman! My oldest son started out skiing before getting a snowboard, this was when he was a teenager. It was a great sport for him during the winter since our neighborhood backs up to a ski resort. I spent many snow days driving the boys to the resort and dropping them off for the day. The cold never bothered them since they had so much fun racing down the hill. The hot chocolate and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies the chalet sold helped too!

I love this picture of my youngest... notice the little trickster hiding behind him giving him some bunny ears.... just cracks me up!

This is the layout for the on point square block. You will use the 4" ad 4 3/8" blocks that you have cut out of the 9 fat quarters. The key to this block is to make it scrappy looking.

I am using the pattern placement page for the layout of my snowman pieces.

I am using a dark brown thread to sew a button hole stitch around my applique pieces.

This is the setting I'm using on my machine for stitch length and width.

I penciled in my design, probably a big no-no using a pencil. I could have used a blue marker, you know the kind that disappears but mine has dried up. So I grabbed a handy mechanical pencil. My stitches will cover up my lines.

A close look at my stitching...

~Skiing Snowman~

To finish this cute design, I embellished my square with some special buttons from Just Another Button Company. I do have these buttons available in my Etsy Shop. Pattern can be found on the Quilt Doodle Designs Website. It's a Free download this month only.  I will not be sewing my buttons onto my quilt top until after I have it all done and quilted. I will also be offering some extra postings for you wool workers out there too! This BOM will be offered the first of every month. Like always, it's FREE for the month that the block is out, then there's a small fee if you have to play catch up to get the block. To make sure that you don't miss any of it,  join my mailing list. Not only will you get all of the BOM 2018 postings and updates, but you will also hear about all sorts of other fun quilty goodness too! I do not sell or share my mailing list with anyone. Just an FYI since all this stuff on GDPR.

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I hope that you have fun with this month's design.
Happy Quilting!

Cindy

If you would like to post this image on your website or blog to spread the word. Please grab the image above and link it to my blog.

Button kits are available in my Etsy Shop too!

Fabric kits are available in my Etsy shop for the 2018 Snow Much Fun BOM! The kit includes your border and block fabrics. This year's quilt is a flannel quilt that will be super warm and cozy when it's finished. I am also working with Just Another Button Company for some adorable buttons to embellish your quilt with. These buttons are available in my Etsy shop.

I only have TWO fabric kits left in the Quilt Doodle Etsy shop.

I will not be selling anymore kits, when they're gone, they're gone. Please note that substitutions may be made when some fabrics 'run out' but the substitutions will be equally as cute! Fabric kit does not include backing or binding

Finished quilt measures 60" x 72"

If you missed out on getting last month's block... you can get it here...