Just Takes Two

My mom and I have been talking about the idea of doing a quilt along together----you know, same pattern, each person doing their own quilt type thing----for awhile. I have also wanted to do a sampler quilt for a long, long time.
So, when my mom told me about the Just Takes Two sampler quilt, I jumped on board without even taking a peek at the quilt. I choose my fabrics and mom gave me the patterns needed for the first 6 blocks.
It wasn't until quite a while later that I found out just what this quilt entails. There are SO MANY blocks and I got a little overwhelmed.
Especially after I made the first block, which required a little bit of hand applique and I discovered I HATE doing hand applique. It came as a surprise....I love quilting and crochet and embroidery, how could I NOT like hand applique???? But, I found it tedious and annoying.
So, I was even more worried that my mom had bought me a ton of fabric for nothing.
I resolved to figure out how to get it all done because I love the colors and the quilt itself and I knew I'd learn a lot. But all those applique blocks had me worried...
Enter the In Your Words blog hop and as my vision for my project evolved, I decided to use some of the fabric from my Just Takes Two quilt. The original idea was to have a wall-hanging that would match the quilt I would *some day* finish, a little incentive to want to finish the quilt. (ended up making it a pillow which will someday sit on top of the quilt on my bed!!!)
And then, I decided to do some fusible applique on the project and I discovered how easy fusing makes applique! Even if I had hand-stitched around the flowers (which I did not do, I machine-stitched), it would have been fine.
So, I have new incentive to do my quilt! I worked on it the other day, when I had a Craft Day that sadly no one came to, getting 3 blocks finished before I stopped to make dinner and burned my hand and couldn't keep piecing that night...but I am excited to keep working on it and the applique blocks no longer intimidate me!
Here's the blocks I have done so far, the three from last night and the two I had finished awhile ago:

In Your Words Blog Hop----My Day Has Come!

It's my day in our In Your Words blog hop and I am so incredibly excited! This is my first time participating with all you lovely people for a hop and I could not have chosen a better hop to be a part of! All the creativity and personal touches I've seen so far and anticipate seeing as the hop continues are so much fun!
A huge thank you to Madame Samm and Linda for putting this hop together!

Here's today's schedule:
Jane's Fabrics (Jane R.)
Jane's Quilting (Jane C.)
Nuts 4 Redwork (Heide W.)
Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio (Cherry G.)
Bits and Pieces (Martha R.) 
*ME*Life in Every Breath (Jennifer B.)
Quilting Lines (Patricia L.)
Travel Thru Greece (Mara)
Meadowbrook (Kristen K.)
Count It All Joy! (Denise P.)
Sophie Junction (Sophie W.)

Okay, so now on to my project. It took awhile for me to come up with just the right combination of words. I knew I wanted something that was an encouragement of things to strive for in life.....especially this next year. There have been some phrases said by my pastors at church that have stuck with me and I thought of using some of them.....or Bible verses......or a simple word by itself....but nothing really felt right. I pondered for quite awhile, lost some sleep over the decision and finally came up with the right set of words for myself: Faith, hope, joy, peace and love. Then I lost some more sleep over how to lay them out. Finally one night it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I knew what I wanted to do. I included the words "Fill today with" since all the words are things I want to fill my life and days with and then made them into a circle....added an embroidered middle, and worked my way out, adding some borders and fused applique.

At the end, I was going to make the piece into a wall hanging, but first I didn't like it in the frame I had, then the more I thought about it, the more it really didn't seem to work as a wall hanging at all.

Thankfully, a couple of hoppers made pillows on Wednesday and then I KNEW how I was going to finish my project! (thanks for the inspiration!)

Here's a close up of the circle of words:

And, lastly, a second view of the pillow:

I found a lovely Bible verse that goes so well with my project:
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!" Romans 15:13

Thank you so much for visiting and hopping along with us!

In Your Words Blog Hop Schedule

I thought maybe you'd like a post in which you can find each day's schedule of the WHOLE hop, so here it is! We're going to have some fun in the next couple of weeks! Just a remind, my day is the 11th! I am finishing up my project and so excited to share it with everyone!

Monday, January 7

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch, Stitch (Cyndi H.)

Kwilty Pleasures (Kathy G.)

Debby Kratovil Quilts (Debby K.))

Sew Darn Quilt (Carolyn R.)

Mary On Lake Pulaski (Mary K.)

Traveling Quilter (Debbie A.)

Just Let Me Quilt (Carol S.)

Vroomans Quilts (Sharon V.)

Cate's Linens (Catherine R.)

Nini and the Sea (Denise)

Sew Much 2 Luv (Karen)

Tuesday, January 8

Piece Peace (Patricia G.)

A Stitch in Time (Patty D.)

krislovesfabric (Kris T.)

Marjorie's Busy Corner (Marjorie)

Grandmamas Stories (Jane H.)

Mrs. Pickles Garden (Hayley)

Patchouli moon Studio (Daryl P.)

Till We Quilt Again (Helen E.)

The Slow Quilter (Felicia F.)

Quilting With Terry and the Cats (Terry S.)

Wednesday, January 9

Kathy's Quilts (Kathy W.)

Sunshine Quilting (Martina S.)

Sew Incredibly Crazy (Amy)

Quilt Doodle Doodles (Cindy S.)

Doodling in My Mind (Darla R.)

I Like to Quiltblog (Bente)

Michelle's Romantic Tangle (Michelle M.)

Grammie Q's (Charlotte M.)

Dancing Moon (Carla B.)

(Betty V.) at “that other blog”

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter (Laura Ann)

Thursday, January 10

Life in the Scrapatch (Pat B.)

Just Sew Sue (Sue B.)

Nati's Little Things (Nati)

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans (Amy)

Pig Tales and Quilts (Thearica)

Scrappy 'n Happy (Jess R.)

Little Mushroom Cap (Amira A.)

Kwilty Pleasures (Kathy)

Moosestash Quilting (Joan K.)

Sowing Stitches (Beulah aka. Carol)

Just Quilt It (Kathy G.)

Friday, January 11

Jane's Fabrics (Jane R.)

Jane's Quilting (Jane C.)

Nuts 4 Redwork (Heide W.)

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio (Cherry G.)

Bits and Pieces (Martha R.)

Life in Every Breath (Jennifer B.)

Quilting Lines (Patricia L.)

Travel Thru Greece (Mara)

Meadowbrook (Kristen K.)

Count It All Joy! (Denise P.)

Sophie Junction (Sophie W.)

Monday, January 14

Gracie Oliver Arts (Jeanie)

Clothes and Crafts (Maria K.)

Cherrys Prairie Primitives (Cherry E.)

Simple Sew (Shirley T.)

Woolie Mammoth (Anna B.)

RocknQuilts (Mary Ann)

Celynn's Sunflower Patch (Celynn)

A Quilting Sheep (Amy)

Sane and Crazy Quilting (Cathy L.)

Quiltsmiles (Jane E.)

Feathered Nest Studio(Jennet)

Tuesday, January 15

BQuiltin Studio (Beverly K.)

Hill Valley Quilter (Britt-Inger)

Bumbleberry Stitches (Theresa K.)

Buzzing and Bumbling (Linda W.)

In Stitches and Seams (Annette S.)

Englating (Marica from Sweden)

Stitchin by the Lake (Marlene B.)

Selina Quilts (Selina)

Sheila's Quilt World (Sheila M.)

Words & Stitches (Beth S.)

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much? (Pamela A.)

Wednesday, January 16

My Collection of Things (Jeni K.)

Quiltin' Jenny (Jenny)

Shade Tree Quilting (Judy C.)

(Rosemary B.) at “that other blog”

Pat Sloan, The Voice of Quilting (Pat. S.)

Dachsies With Moxie (Agnes B.)

Sew Many Yarns (Lyndsey M.)

Tomorrows Treasures Today (Denise D.)

The German Mom (Tina S.)

Christa Quilts (Christa W.)

Read, Quilt, Cook, Pray (Aletta)

Sew We Quilt (Mdm. Samm)

In Your Words Blog Hop

My first ever blog hop is only a week away! The hop starts on the 7th, my day is the 11th. I am seriously excited!
Just a reminder, you'll want to check out Sew WE Quilt every day for posts about the hop, including her favorite picks, and give-aways for some fabulous prizes!
I don't have a give away to do for you all this time (sorry), but I think some of the others in the hop will be including a give away in their post, so you will want to go check out each days participants! Of course, you'll want to see what each person has done "in their words" anyway! I know I will!
Hope you enjoy the hop and I look forward to posting my words project for you all to see on the 11th!

In Your Words

I am excited to announce that I am still going to be a part of a blog hop in January!
The new blog hop to take the place of the Nancy Drew Is A Clue hope that was rescheduled for March (still SO excited for that one too!) is called In Your Words. Whatever your project is, you are to add text to it that is something that either describes you, or is your "theme" for 2013, or something like that!
I am excited because I have a few short phrases that have been tumbling about my head for awhile that would be perfect for this.
I am thinking of doing an embroidery project, and maybe incorportating some quilting or something along with it. I'm not sure, you'll have to tune in in January to find out for sure!
I am looking forward to seeing what each participant does, this is so much fun!