Still not finished

I am so up the creek without a paddle!!! Remember how I said I had a deadline for the Nightshade quilt? Well, yeah, I got it finished finally!!! I got it basted and started quilting it....then things went downhill! I started to do some stippling on it and ended up BREAKING TEN NEEDLES!!!! That has never happened to me before!!!!! I don't know what in the world I was doing wrong, so since I was running out of needles I had to come up with a different plan! I pulled out my handy walking foot and started on the other side of the quilt. Doing wavy lines. Then started unpicking all that stippling. Let me just tell ya, IT TAKES FOREVER!!!! I was hoping and trying my best to get this thing done in time for the Bloggers Quilt Festival, but it didn't happen! :( Oh well, maybe next year!

Here is a pic of one of the needles. Anyone know what I did wrong? One of my lovely friends on IG said that I was moving the fabric too fast and not giving the needle enough time to make a complete stitch. I dunno!!! I've done stippling on quite a few projects and have NEVER had this problem! But this is a huge quilt!

I'm still in the process of unpicking all these dang stitches! Thanks for MIL cuz she's helping me out with it! She likes doing things like that. That same friend on IG said it took ONE hour of unpicking for EVERY 10 min of stitches! UGH! I've been working on unpicking for FOUR days now! Thankfully, the person buying this quilt is being very understanding! But I want it DONE! I have a ton of other projects that I need to be working on!

There is the quilts before I basted them. I had to enroll the help of my hubby and one of his friends to baste this bad boy. I had to use my living room wall!!! It worked though! :)

I love the way it turned out though! (Sorry about the pics, my camera is still broken so all I have is my phone!)

I finished up my Modernista swap and got it in the mail!!!! The pic above is the mini I made for my partner! I really really hope she likes it!

I hope everyone stayed safe during this terrible storm! This is a pic of the doppler radar around my area. It looked like it was going to be bad here but thankfully we didn't get ANYTHING! It rained a little and the wind was kinda strong but as far as the snow coming that they were predicting, didn't get a drop! Now a place about an hour away got around 2 ft!!!! By the doppler it looks like it hit everywhere around me!

Tell me which book would you like to hear about next? I've got 2 new ones that I've bought recently. Sew to Swap or Quilts from The House of Tula Pink? I've started looking through both of them and they both seem pretty good. So whichever one gets the most votes in the comments I will review and have the review ready hopefully by the end of the week! So please leave a comment and tell me which one you'd rather me do first!!!

~Hope y'all are having a great day!~

My first book review

I believe I have promised you guys a book review, right? One that I'm EXTREMELY nervous to write, mainly because I don't want to do it the wrong way. But, I figure the main thing about a review is giving your opinion of the item being reviewed. Right?
 I sure hope so, cuz that's how I'm going to be doing this. I have read this book literally from cover to cover over the past few days, figured why not, I was so sick I could barely get out of my bed. I tried to make good use of my time!

The book I'm going to be reviewing is Pretty in Patchwork Holidays by John Adams of Quilt Dad. He is an amazing quilter!!! And yes just like the cover says, there is really A LOT of projects in here!!!
Let me just give a littler bit of a DISCLAIMER here before I begin: I purchased this book with my own money, I am NOT being paid in ANY FORM OR FASHION to write this review, therefore I have NO OBLIGATION to say ANYTHING good nor bad about this book, Everything written here is directly from ME! It's my thoughts and opinions of this book. Period. No one else's!!

So, I will begin at where else? The beginning!!! John starts off with a chapter on "The Basics", here he gives us all a brief explanation of, well, the basics of quilting in general. He even goes into some embroidery!!! The only thing that I found I didn't like about this book was this chapter. The main reason I didn't like it is because while it is "beginner friendly" it's not too "beginner friendly". If you are planning to make a quilt from this book, you need to have a basic knowledge of quilting. He really explains everything quite well except for the binding part. To me, binding is EXTREMELY important. It's what finishes a quilt. He doesn't explain it too well. But again, this is MY OPINION!

This book has A LOT of great projects in it! This pillow case called "Read Between the Lines" is just adorable!!! And it even has the "how-to" on how to do EVERY letter in the alphabet, so you can personalize it HOWEVER you want! I think it's a great idea! It is for sure on my "To-Do" list!
From pillows to quilts to ornaments and table runners this book really does have something in it for just about any quilter out there! And the best thing is, there are variations in this book for every project so you don't HAVE to make the project Holiday at all!!! Pretty cool, huh?

Ahhh, the Modern Maples quilt!! I've seen SOOOO MANY of these around, especially on IG. This is my favorite quilt in this book. And you can really make it any size you want, just have to do your own calculations to make bigger than a 59"x70" quilt (which to me is a generous throw size). So, if any of y'all had been wondering where to get this pattern, now ya know! It's in this book!!!! I love it!!!

These are a great idea for a gift bag! Especially for handmade items. I'm sure you could tweak those measurements around and make them as big or small as you need them for ANY gift! Plus like the book says, they are a gift all in itself! John gives us the pattern to make either bag, but really your imagination could take over and you could do whatever you wanted with the front of it!

I think this project is my favorite! This table runner is just adorable! I am almost positive I'll be making this as my first project out of this book! I wish I could start on it right now, but, my to-do list is already big enough for the time being! I just love it though!
And for your last sneak peak into the book I'll show you an ADORABLE wall hanging!

I know the glare of my light makes it hard to see but it's got some embroidery on there! "Home Sqaush Home" cute huh?
So in my opinion there is a TON of really cute projects in here and I really can't wait to make EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! I know that won't be any time soon, but hey, a girl can dream right? I could make little mug rugs for the adults and softies for the kids. Or I could just make really cute little ornaments for EVERYONE? The possibilities are endless with this book! Yes, it does say "Holidays" in the title but if your one of those "bah hum bug" peoples and the holidays isn't really your style, this really does have TONS of options for you! I'm very glad with my purchase. I have a lot of ideas boiling in my head and projects on my "hope to get done" list from this book! I didn't want to spoil the book and give you too many previews. But if I had to say "yes go buy this book" or "no don't buy it" I would say "BUY IT!"
And right now, you can find it here for a GREAT price! So yes, go ahead! My opinion is this book was very well thought out and put together, and has a lot of inspiring projects for anyone! Not just beginners! So if you are reading this Mr. John Adams, I hope you are happy with this post, because I really do LOVE your book! You worked with some amazingly talented people to put this together and I can really tell that you put your heart into making this the best book you possibly could! Thank you!



Alright, so what do you think of my first review? Please leave me a comment and let me know. Did I do good or bad? What would you change, or not change? You won't hurt my feelings, I promise!!! Constructive criticism is better than none!!! I hope you guys really do enjoy the book!!!!

~Hope y'all are having a great day!!~