welcome to the north pole sew-a-long

This year,  I am psyched up about having joined several sew-a-longs and block-of-the-month online programs. I have stayed on top of things so far, but it is still just February. I wonder if I have the staying power to complete all of them? Hmm.. I am certainly going to try. It will probably get a little more difficult in the warmer months when I don't want a warm quilt on my ready warm lap or want to spend more time outdoors than in. Maybe I will just have to take the sewing machine outside when it gets warmer!

Welcome to the North Pole with Val Spiers has become a revived SAL with several new participants - I being one of them. I really didn't know what I was getting into when I joined this program; I thought it was be easy cheesy. Boy, was I wrong! I spent all morning trying to get my fabrics right on the first block - Mr. and Mrs. Claus' House. I really loved the green fabric for the main house, and cut a smaller entrance way in green as well, but it didn't stand out the way I wanted it too. I returned back to the blue and added the blue shutters. The chimney was also an afterthought or change of fabric; it was first in browns. I might change the front door to brown?!

I am not going to appliqué until I have a few more blocks finished. I want to see more of a collection of blocks before I make an impromptu decision and change things later.

With the snow on the bottom, I went with the idea of cutting three inch wide strips, folding in half and sewing along the edge of the block. I made some ripples and sewed very close to the edge below the house and hill. I like the 3-D appearance of snow and drifts. I could add more stitching to the snow later. We'll see. So far, I am quite content.

I could really envision hand stitching lots of details.....this is a very exciting journey for me. I am feeling much better about it today than when I made the block. I am now looking forward to the next block and have already picked the color scheme for it.

One thing I have to remind myself about BOMs or SALs in that I shouldn't put too much weight on one individual block. In the end, it will be a collection of blocks. The overall impression is more important. Better said than done sometimes, right? I also like to hang the block up and live with it for a while.

I am curious to seeing what the other lovely ladies have done on their North Pole blocks!

Keep sewing and thanks for dropping by.
Karen

acronyms in the quilting world

When I first started to sew, it took me a while to understand some really basic acronyms in the quilting world. Granted most of these I learned online. I think the very first acronym I learned was FQ which is rather simple - a fat quarter. But over time, there have been a few more that challenged me. Have you ever heard of a QIP or FMQ or the fairly new FO? Are you sometimes lost too? Here is an alphabetized list of some of the acronyms and terminology of our shared language. Please feel free to add more to the bottom of the list in the comments!

401F	Fabric for Retirement
401P	Patterns for Retirement
AK	Ample Knitters
Binding	any number of ways to close up your quilt
Block	a unit used in a quilt
BOB	Beginner’s Only Block (swap)
BOM	Block of the Month
Border	framing your patchwork with strips
BSS	Basic Sewing Supplies
CC	Counter Cut
COC	Cream On Cream
CQ	Crazy Quilting
DJ	Dear Jane
D4P	Double Four Patch
DIC	Double Irish Chain
DIY	Do It Yourself
DSM	Domestic Sewing Machine
DWR	Double Wedding Ring
EQ	Electric Quilt (Software Program)
F8	Fat 1/8th (9” x 22” piece of fabric)
FART	Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
FHS	Free Hand Sewing
FIU	Finish It Up
FM	Free Motion
FM	Free Motion Quilting
FO	Finished Object
FOB	Fear Of Binding
FQ	Fat Quarter
FSUI	Fabric Shopping Under the Influence
FW	Fusible Web
GFG	Grandmother’s Flower Garden
HMQS	Home Machine Quilt Service
HP	Hand Piecing
HQ	Hand Quilting
HST	Half-Square Triangle
HSY	Haven’t Started Yet
LAQ	Long Arm Quilter
Linky Party	Link to your post or photograph
LQS	Long Quilting Sewer
LC	Layer Cakes
LQ	Liberated Quiltmaking
LQS	Local Quilt Shop
MAQ	Mid-Arm Quilter
MGBTQ	Must Get Back To Quilting
MQ	Mystery Quilt
MQG	Modern Quilt Guild
NQR	Not Quilt Related
OBW	One-Block Wonder
OSMG	Old Sewing Machine Guy
PG	Patchwork Group
PHD	Project Half Done
PIGS	Projects In Grocery Sacks
PIM	Project In Mind
PIP	Project In Progress
PIT	Project In Tote
PIW	Project In Waiting
PP	Paper Piecing
QAL	Quilt A Long
QAYG	Quilt As You Go
Quilt	anything that has layers and has been made by you!
Quilting Bee	an organized time for quilters to get away
QFH	Quilt From Hell
QG	Quilting Guy
QIP	Quilting In Public (Naughty, naughty!)
QR	Quilt Related
QUIMM	Quilt In My Mind
QOTD	Question Of The Day
QR	Quilt Related
QST	Quarter Square Triangle
RR	Round Robin
RUF	Really Ugly Fabric
RQQ	Rag Queen Quilters
SABLE	Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
SAL	Sew A Long
SAQM	Small Arm Quilting Machine
SAS	Steam A Seam
Selvedge Edge	edge of the fabric where the name is usually printed
SEX	Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)
SID	Stitch In (the) Ditch
Siggies	Squares or blocks with signatures of other quilters
SIY	Sew It Yourself
SnW	Stack ‘n Whack
Stash Buster	Any project to use up your scraps
SUI	Sewing Under (the) Influence (hopefully with friends)
SWAN	Swap Without A Name
TBQ	To Be Quilted
TGIF	Thank Goodness It’s Finished!
TOAD	Trashed Object Abandoned In Disgust
TOT	Tone-on-Tone
UFO	UnFinshed Object
USO	UnStarted Object
VIP	Very Important Project
WOA	Work Of Art
WHIMM	Works Hidden In My Mind
WIP	Work In Progress
WISP	Work In Slow Progress
WIWMI	Wish It Would Make Itself
WOF	Width of Fabric
WOMBAT	Waste of Money, Batting, and Time
WOW	White On White
WST	Wrong Sides Together
WWIT	What Was I Thinking??
YoYo	a circle of fabric, gathered and sewn into a puffy circle; also one who makes them

And if you are wondering what the picture is on this post, it would happen to be No. 7 - Nina's Choice that I am HMQ! I want a LAQM or at least a HQM with a large space under the arm! WWIT!! Oh, I am so craving some gooood SEX! Anyone else? ;-)

Happy patching!
Karen