I saw this quilt by Aneela Hoey over 9 months ago.  I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind – I just LOVE it!

So – here’s what I am proposing – a House and Tree Quilt–Along!
That’s right – a tutorial for a block with either a house or a tree (or both) in it will be posted on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s during ‘off’ weeks of Project QUILTING.  Why am I doing this to myself – I seriously LOVE this quilt and ‘house’ quilts have caught my eye for a long time.
I figure if I do this during the off weeks of Project QUILTING I should get quite a few people to join along.

To make this work I need some volunteers to design quilt blocks and make up tutorials for them.  If you have a blog – you can post your tutorial right on your own blog.  Once your post is up, I’ll link the block from my website to yours and include a mini bio about you, the designer.  If you don’t have your own blog, just send me a word file with the instructions and photo’s and I’ll post it on my blog with links to you and of course a mini bio about you, the designer.

I talked to Aneela Hooey about my idea since her quilt was my inspiration.  She thought it was a great idea but has too many obligations this year to participate.  BUT she did give me a link to a house and tree tutorial on her blog so you can always start with those and work your own design off there. 

The block you design should be 12.5” x 12.5” (so it’s a finished 12” square). 
It has to have a house, a tree, or both incorporated somehow into the block but feel free to add other elements as well (see above inspiration quilt). 

Here’s the schedule
Block 1: January 17th – Kim Lapacek - LIVE - My Home
Block 2: Januray 19th – Diane Lapacek - LIVE - Lapacek's Orchard
Block 3: January 24th - PamelaQuilts - LIVE - House by the Bay
Block 4: January 26th - Quilts By Barb - LIVE - My Tilted House
Block 5: January 31st - TerryAskeArtQuilts - LIVE - Two Trees
Block 6: February 2nd - Quilties - LIVE - Tree of Life
Block 7: February 14th - Quilt Jane - LIVE - Under the Moreton Bay Fig
Block 8: February 16th - Kim Lapacek - LIVE - A Wonky Modern House
Block 9: February 28th - CraftyMamaD - LIVE - Scrappy Trees
Block 10: March 1st - Michelle Foster from QuiltingGallery - LIVE - A Home for the Birds
Block 11: March 13th - Prairie Moon Quilts - LIVE - The Happy Tree
Block 12: March 15th - Olive and Ollie - LIVE - the little house
Block 13: March 27th - Around The Quilt Block - LIVE - three trees
Block 14: March 29th -  Melissa Stramel of  Lilac Lane - LIVE - Under the Apple Tree
Block 15: April 3rd - Samelia's Mum - LIVE - A Home for Hoot
Block 16: April 5th - Sally's Ponderings - LIVE - Branch Sweet Branch

BONUS Blocks
accuquilt home
Marcia's Crazee Patch House
Rippling Pond - Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting
Acid Cottage - Love Affair with my Brother


Sashing BONUS


Bonus Sashing Tutorials

1. 1. Four Rectangles
   2. Scrappy Strips
   3. Stepping Strips
   4. Four Squares
   5. Trees in Blossom
   6. Window Trees
   7. Mosaic Tree
   8. Truffula Tree 
   9. Spinning Tree
   10. Hexagon Forest 
   11. Diamonds in the Rough
   12. Shoo Fly Sashing
   13. Geese a Flying
   14. Tall True North Tree
   15. Tall Trees
   16. Wild Trees
   17. Eight Rectangles
   18. Branches Wild
   19. Birds in the Bushes
   20. String a Flower Garden
   21. Steps
   22. Let's Strip
   23. Stripped Squares
   24. Tri-Recs Trees
   25. Hexagon Trees
   26. Strips and Mosaics
   27. Stacked Modern Pine
   28. Suburbia
   29. Tetris
   30. Spinning Pinwheels
   31. Happy Neighborhood
   32. Nine Patch Centered in Red
   33. Drunken Geese
   34. True North Mini Tree
   35. Chevron
   36. Tri Strips
   37. Twelve Rectangles
   38. Zig Zag Pathways
   39. Checkered
   40. Window Panes
   41. Bird House 
   42. Split Hexie Tree
   43. Tall Pinwheel Tree
   44. True North Tree
   45. Zig Zag Sashing
   46. Rail Fence
   47. 36 Patch
   48. Two Rectangles
   49. Stepping Strips 2

Cornerstone Ideas:
Fat Quarter Shop Fabric Finds

1/3/12 update
***So - I have 16 designers and 16 blocks!  Whoo Hoo!  If you are really wishing you would have signed up for it because you have an amazing idea in mind I'd be happy to feature *bonus* blocks that a person could make to increase the size of their quilt or in replace of a block they're just feeling.  Just contact me if you're still interested!  Thanks to everyone that signed up so far!  WOW!

Feel free to add your button to your blog as a reminder of the fun that's about to start!

Every year we do something a little different for Christmas – from Making Hats, Ugly Sweater Contests, or Boat Races.  This year, in our yearly Christmas email that gave us instructions of what we need to bring to participate in the festivities this was written:

3) Each adult is requested to bring (1) one decorated beer bottle.

    The bottles must be capped and full of beer.

So, the Thursday before Christmas we sent the girls to Grandma and Grandpa Lapacek’s for a sleepover and Jared and I got to work on our bottles.

Jared really wanted to use Pumpkin Teeth in his design so he started with that for his inspiration.  I was inspired by some jewel cabochons that I found being stored in my breezeway.   In the end Jared came up with this fantastic caterpillar.  He took the stuffing out of one of the girls stuffed animals and thenMade a fantastic ‘face’ for the caterpillar with the pumpkin teeth.  There is even a gold glittery one!  Just imagine taking a swig out of that bottle and opening your eyes to this!  

 

 

 

Here is a view of my bottle from all angles – I personally am super happy about how it turned out.  Maybe I need to make a whole series of ‘bedazzled/bejeweled’ bottles.  Both of my girls told me that ‘It was a winner in their contest’. 

To see the other bottles brought to Christmas 2011 check out this LINK. 

But I will show you the winners…

In 4th place:

In 3rd place:

In Second Place:And First Place:

I am excited to see what my relatives come up with for next years Christmas!

With the new year quickly approaching I’m revamping my ‘world’.  My sewing room is completely torn up right now and is being expanded and reorganized to make room for my new ‘little’ long arm., my sewing machine (my baby) is in the shop for some regular cleaning and maintenance,  AND I have big, grandeous (not sure how I should actually spell that…maybe it’s not a real word…) plans to redo my blogs to condense and streamline all of my interests. 

One thing that is keeping me sane through all my ‘crafty world renovations’ is that I have a deadline – January 8th.  January 8th is when the first challenge for Project QUILTING, Season 3 is posted and it’s when I have to be able to sew again. Which means, everything has to be reorganized, clean and operational.  It also means – I have a lot of work to do.

In the middle of all this I need to get all of you super excited about the 3rd season of Project QUILTING.  I don’t know about you but I am definitely excited!  We took a rather long break between season 2 and 3 but in my defense…I did have a baby during that time. 

Amazing quilts were created during Season 1 and Season 2 which means I have high expectations for you all (and myself) this season.

Things are going to change slightly.  There will be no more judges winner or public winner – which means no more critiques on your piece, unless you post your quilt to the Flickr ‘Critique’ Site.  There will still be prizes each week and at the end but this is how it’s going to work.

All prizes will be chosen by random drawing.  Whoever enters a piece (following the guidelines of the challenge) will have their name written on a piece of paper and put in a hat (literally – a hat).  Either Cedi or Capri, my two older daughters, will draw a name and that person will win the prize.

At the end of the season there will be grand prizes as well – each time you enter a challenge during the season your name will be put in the hat for the grand prize.  Which means, the more challenges you enter, the bigger your chances are at winning the grand prize.

I already have a couple of great prizes lined up for this season.

Prizes (so Far)

First, from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and Quilting

1. Easy to Sew Table Runners, 2. First Morning Glory Bloom Quilt, 3. Quilts for a Cause 2011 Created with fd's Flickr Toys

 

For each challenge, I would like to offer a Gift Certificate of $30.00 off Quilting on a Baby size or larger.  The Gift Certificate will be good for 60 days from the date of issue.  The gift certificate is transferable so you can share it with a friend if you’d like.

I was browsing through Marcia’s Blog to find some examples of her fabulous quilting – there are so many!  One that really caught my eye is shown above with her Triple Meandering Technique.  I think it looks truly fabulous!

Next we have two prizes from FabricFascination:

One week the random drawing winner will be able to choose from either color of these:

Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in BlueBerry       OR

Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in Pomegranate

Another week the random drawing winner will receive this:

Fabric Bundle: 6 Fat Quarters from Kathy Davis Happiness Collection for Free Spirit in Indigo - 1 1/2 YDs (ps. I have this collection in another color – SPECTACULAR! (and Spectacular happened to be today’s ‘Word on the Street’ on Sesame Street in case you were wondering))

Kym from FabricFascination would also like to offer you all 10% off all fabrics in her etsy shop using the coupon code: KIMSCRAFTY

 

I’m still looking for sponsors so email me at: lapaceksorchard {at} gmail {dot} com if you’re interested in being one.  There are some ‘perks’ including a button on my blog and being mentioned in blog posts and via my newsletter.

 

Also – I need your help to make this season a success!  Please help me spread the word about the start of Season 3 – on your blog, facebook, twitter, guilds, to friends/family that quilt.  Anyone, everyone you know!  Project QUILTING is not just for experienced quilters.  It’s a fantastic way to challenge yourself, create something you never imagined before AND complete a project in just one week!  In fact, our second place winner of last season was a fairly new quilter – it was amazing to see how her work progressed as the challenges continued.  She even went on to be featured on Generation Q (a fabulous new quilting emagazine) because of a project Project QUILTING inspired. 

 

If you have any ideas for me on how to spread the word about this challenge please let me know!  I’d also be happy to answer any questions for you if you wanted to do an ‘interview’ post on your blog or wherever.

 

Thanks in advance for helping me make Season 3 another quilting success!

 

Schedule for Season 3

(each challenge is posted at NOON and is due by NOON the following Sunday):

Challenge 1: January 8th
Challenge 2: January 22nd
Challenge 3: February 5th
Challenge 4: February 19th
Challenge 5: March 4th
Challenge 6: March 18th

Welcome back to another nail biting edition of the Mystery Quilt!

If you’re just tuning in to the Mystery Monday from the Quilts by Barb 2011 Quilt Retreat be sure to take a look a back at

• Choosing Your Fabrics
• Steps 1 & 2
• Steps 3 & 4
• Steps 5, 6, 7 & 8
• Step 9
• Steps 10, 11, 12, & 13
• Steps 14 & 15

 

I don’t have pictures of these steps on my quilt so I drew some diagrams up in Paintbrush…

Step 15.  Using triangles from Step 5, make:

Step 17.  Using triangles from Step 6, make 2: After next Monday’s instructions you’ll start to be able to see what your quilt is going to look like!  Almost there…

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before I shut my computer down for the next few days.  My littles are tucked into bed with instructions that Santa won’t come unless they are sleeping.  After the last few days of celebrating they’ve had I can’t believe that they will be up long.I’m sitting here enjoying a nice hot cup of Friendship Tea as I blog.  I have probably shared this in the past but if you don’t remember – here’s the simple recipe.  (also can make a beautiful last minute gift – just put it in a mason jar with a ribbon tied around the lid…)

Friendship Tea

• 1 cup Instant Tea
  2 cups Tang
  2 pkgs of presweetened lemonade (if unsweetened add 1 cup of sugar…pink lemonade makes it look even prettier…)
  1 tsp cloves
  1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and store in covered jar.

Use 1 heaping tsp or more to 1 cup boiling water

Friendship Tea has become a ‘comfort’ drink for me.  It reminds me of childhood – being warm and snuggly, under a blanket and enjoying a good book.

We still have a few Christmas celebrations left but so far things are going nice and smoothly (knock on wood).

We’ve had too many Christmas’s that the girls have laid on my lap and let me open their presents from Santa for them because they were just too sick.  Really, really hoping and praying that they wake up super excited tomorrow morning!   They are at such a wonderful age for all the Christmas magic of the season…except Pip – but she really does enjoy eating the wrapping paper! 

The other day I got really nostalgic about some of the movies I used to watch at Christmas time when I was a kid.  They included The Muppet Christmas Carol, One Magic Christmas, and The Night They Saved Christmas.  I decided to order them so that I could have my kids have the same memories of them as me.  (I have now added Elf and Bad Santa to those favorites…but don’t worry, I won’t let the girls watch Bad Santa for a long while). 

I never expected the movies to arrive before Christmas since I asked for the ‘Free Shipping’ method.  But, much to my surprise – two of the movies arrived today!  It was a Christmas Miracle :)  Jared and I are watching the Muppets tonight and I’m sure I’ll be watching it again with the girls tomorrow night while Papa is at the Packer Game with Uncle Brian. 

Pip still only has her one tooth…but she’s been such a happy adorable baby.  Also – so tolerant of the crazy schedule and rocked to sleep naps in the car seat.  We are so blessed to have these wonderful babes. I won’t leave you in suspense too long – I’ll be blogging more about this next week.  I’ll leave you with yes – that’s a bedazzled beer bottle full of High Life AND a caterpillar/pumpkin teeth beer bottle full of High Life.  AND yes – it is for one of our Christmas celebrations…

And with that – Merry Christmas to everyone!  I’m signing off the computer for a day or so and just taking the time to enjoy my family and this wonderful holiday!

See how to make your very own felt stockings HERE!

Moving down the list of ‘style’ options in an alphabetical fashion – next up is African. 
(paraphrased/summarized from wikipedia African Art article)
There is a lot of diversity in African style but a few common themes in the total visual culture of the African continent.

Thematic Elements

• Emphasis on Human Figure

  African Style Mixed Media 3d Sculpture from naamaza

• Visual Abstraction

African Fabric Fascinator from abrefi

• Emphasis on Sculpture

 

Werkstatte Hagenauer Wien Style Bronze Wood African Natives in Canoe Art Deco from AustriaBrass

• Nonlinear Scaling

 

African Style Collectable Mug with the Color Wheel from javieravalos

Wood Fired Handmade African Djembe from TePottery

'What's Your Style: African' by TheApple

Edition Collectible Mug ( af... javieravalos $27.00	Triangular Pine Needle Giraf... bazketmakr $110.00
Julia Cairns Joyful Days Pan... SheSellsFabric $8.00	Gourd Shekere Rattle Musical... midnightcoiler $35.00
Jewelry Paper- Origami Brace... Manufactapaper $12.00	Hair Pins Yellow Green Gunme... lindesigns $16.50
Zentangle OOAK Dazzle Doodle... IntoTheLight $26.00	Vintage Zebra Print Wild Wom... SunshineintheC... $8.00
African style handmade rag d... ESZTERDArte $28.00	Purple Floral Lampwork Earri... GlassRiverJewe... $31.00
Fine Art Print Reproduction ... GwenMeyerson $18.00	Rust Amber Black Silver Afri... CharleneSevier $18.00
African style picture naamaza $20.00	Colorful african style paint... realmlistic $6.70
Beautiful Original "Ai... JennsFineDesig... $145.00	11 ELEPHANT HAIR Styled brac... stribal $52.80

Past Styles:

• Abstract