Sunday

Well, I haven't gotten any sewing done this weekend so far. Joe and Hannah spent Friday at their big brother's (Tom) place, then came home for an hour or two before their brother in law, Greg, picked them up to spend the night at their big sister's (Jess) place. So, for the majority of the weekend it has been only Tom, Patrick and me. Saturday morning my friend Pam and I went out to the fabric store and got the material I needed to make the final block in the Safe Haven quilt top. I am so excited! We did great and only purchased a few extra odds and ends. She bought a fall fabric she had to have and I bought a little pack of 30's prints. Lordy I love the 30's fabrics! No intent on doing anything with them yet...just collecting them. I spent Saturday afternoon making a killer pot of chili with jalapeno corn bread and cutting up my scraps. I am ALMOST done with that project!!! Just one more small plastic grocery bag full of scraps and that is it. What an undertaking. It is great to see all those pieces all ready to go!
We are off to the state fair today to walk around and see what there is to see. Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

Yay! Another quilt top done...and one that means so much to me!

I am proud to present my finished farm animal swap block quilt top! This was done with wonderful ladies from the homesteadingtoday site. These ladies mean more to me than I am sure they know. I am fairly new to the list and they have all made me feel soooooo welcome. This was a stretch for me. I am certain I probably would never have made a quilt out of farm animal blocks, but this has turned out to be one of my faves I have ever made..with the help of friends. When I put the backing on and quilt it, I will make a label behind everyone's block with their names and locations. I am so excited about this! After much thought, I really thought this quilt top needed a simple design. I opted for a 4 patch made with scraps with the same colors as the blocks. The outside border is a barnsiding pattern. It turned out just the way I had hoped. Country to the core and so inviting for snuggling! Hope I did your work justice ladies!!

And, yes..that IS my chicken coop in the background! Please click on the image to see the close up version to see the beautiful work these ladies did!

My winnings came today!

I won a big, big bagful of flannel scraps from Jill at her blog, Ramblings of a Fabric obsessor. I can't wait to jump into this bounty, but am going to be good and finish up at least some of what I already have started. Thanks so much, Jill! I never seem to win anything, so this was so exciting for me!!
Tonight I am going to be working on my farm animal swap blocks. I got some of the most creative and beautiful blocks from this swap with my homesteadingtoday quilting friends! I can't wait to show them what I've made from them and to see what they have come up with!

Work in progress..Giant Dahlia quilt top

Thought I would share my progress on my Giant Dahlia (aka Giant Sunflower) top. Have you ever had one that just made you soooo nervous that you keep putting off working on it? This is it for me. The author of the book told me REPEATEDLY to make sure my seams were exact or the whole thing would be off. So...I just didn't work on it lol. She was right about that, but this really went together quickly once I put my fear aside. This is just the center medallion..I still have to sew and attach the rest of the background, and then the border. The medallion is 54 inches and finished size will be 64x64. The border is really cool, too. I can't wait to finish it (or the other tops that are waiting)!! lol Thank you Suzzy Payne and Susan Murwin for making this so simple with your book!! And, Suzzy..if you are out there..sorry I didn't get it done in time for the show next weekend. Maybe next spring!

Random thought

Having found all the pieces for what appears to be a snowball quilt with no knowledge of how these were intended to be laid out, what the color design was or even if this was going to be all snowballs, I find myself stressing over what to do with this bounty. Yes, I know I can do whatever I like with it, but I would really like to do whatever the original owner of these pieces intended. The shop I got them at generally gets the stash from people who have passed on or become unable to finish these items, from the family members sorting through the persons belongings. I feel a kinship with them when I get something like this and feel honored to finish their hard work. I have decided that from now on, when I start a new quilt, I am going to write up a little info and keep it with the quilt makings. The pattern name, dimensions, color placement, etc. Not only will it remind me later if I don't get to it right away, but, who knows...maybe someday some quilter will be sitting at her kitchen table, staring at squares that I cut out, wondering just what I had in mind. Just a thought....

A little nostalgia

As I was sitting here counting all the pieces to my new mystery quilt, I was thinking about our new puppy, Delilah (aka Ihop). As minds do, or at least mine does, that brought me to probably 50 other thoughts ending with the memory of Tom Jones singing "Delilah". Now, I was born in 1964 and my mother was a HUGE fan (weren't all women then??) of Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck and Jim Nabors. All I have to do is hear any of them sing and I immediately think of my mom. I lost my mom when I was 19 and memories of her mean the world to me. Guess those years of listening to them sunk in, though, I still adore listening to all of them. Here is a little gift to you today..."Delilah" sung by Tom Jones. Maybe it will remind you of songs you listened to growing up, your mother, or even you yourself having a big crush on him...enjoy!!

Today's discovery...a mystery quilt! Help!

Alright. I couldn't resist and just HAD to stop at the Craft Bits and Pieces shop today. Where folks donate craft items they no longer need or inherit, etc. Proceeds go to seniors programs and the prices are dirt cheap. Today, I really hit a gold mine. I found this container containing all these pre cut 3 1/2 inch squares and tiny 1 in squares. I was thrilled..so many ways to use these and best of all...no cutting for me!! Best part?? I got the container full for 6.95!!


When I got home and started looking through it, I found these:



So, it appears someone was making a snowball quilt out of these. Now for where I need help. Here is a pic of all the precut blocks according to colors.


There are 196 squares of one print(far left in pic) and 306 squares of the assorted colors. I assume the 196 are for every other row with the others between, but I am not sure if they planned on using the other colors randomly or in a set pattern. Or, maybe there weren't going to be all snowballs (tho with all the tiny 1 in pieces, it would appear so). Any one have any ideas? All I know is I am thrilled to have what appears to be all to make a complete quilt top for only 6.95!!A quilters day doesn't get much better than this!

Yay...a productive day and a give away!

I feel like I haven't had one of these in a loooong time. First, let me tell you about a great give away. Terri and Sue at Two Creative Studios are hosting this and the prizes are great! Check them out here:
http://twocreativestudios.com/newsletter.htm Good luck!
I froze a ton of peppers from the garden, did mountains of laundry, cleaned the kitchen up WELL, and got almost all the Scrappy Mountain quilt top done. All I have left is the borders and the top is done. Hopefully that will be done tomorrow. Here is how it looks so far:


This was the Scrappy Mirror Image Mountain version. This was the top vote version. Hope you like it..I am very pleased with it. It is so tall I had to have hub and son hold it sideways and then rotated the pic. So, hope having the sky on the right doesn't make you seasick! I will post another pic as soon as I have the borders on.

Also, I am now a chicken gramma! Our chickens started laying this week and we are sooo excited! They are only 4 months old so I didn't expect anything yet, but we are not complaining. Omelets anyone??

Back and with a new friend

Well, I haven't been around for a few weeks due to my computer being down, and do I have a lot to catch up on here! I am going to start by introducing you to the newest member of our family. We got her last week and she is an 8 week old Schipperke pup. We don't usually do small dogs in our house ( we also have Luke..my 6 yr old Chow/lab mix), but this little girl was in need of a home so we had to bring her home. How could you look at this face and NOT???

She is a purebred from championship lines, but the breeder gave her to us as she has just one small flaw for showing...she was born with only 3 legs! She is missing her left front leg although she doesn't know it and already runs the dog, cats and chickens ragged around here! lol We were calling her Ihop until we came up with a name and I think we have finally settled on calling her Delilah. Well, off to a busy Saturday here and will pop in here and there today and post some of the other goodies I have been up to while away! Happy stitching!