My crew

A few months ago, I posted this pic of my family. It was small...really small. Everyone asked to see it bigger. I am a computer dummy. I don't know how to make it bigger. LOL Well, hub was doing some scanning of pics and taking care of all the computer mumbo jumbo for me for a quilt that I am making my father with family pics on it. Umm..I am just now printing out the pics and I need to have this quilt done by Friday as we are heading to Jersey next Sat morning for a surprise birthday party for my dad. Talk about pressure!! Will show pics as soon as that one is done!
Anywho...here is a bigger pic of my kids:

This was taken almost 2 years ago at my daughter's wedding. We have Joe-15 then- first on the left, Hannah-14 then- next, Patrick-16 then- in the chair, Dan-20 then-next to Hannah, Tom-26 then- after Dan, Greg-25 then- my new son in love, and Jess-24 then- my gorgeous bride. Yes, I grow big handsome boys and gorgeous girls, don't I?? I was born to be a breeder, I swear. My favorite thing in the world was being pregnant with these guys and having the honor to be their mother. I lost 5 other babies, so the crew would have totalled 11, but all in all, I think I got the cream of the crop!!!
Happy Memorial Day to you all...lots of gardening today, lots of eating and laughs and with any luck a tiny bit of sewing thrown in. Tomorrow is mass sewing day to get that top done for my dad. That will give me the rest of the week to get it quilted.
God bless you all..as you can tell by that pic that He has me!!!

Sweet Menagerie is coming along

I seem to be working on and off on a lot of different projects lately, which is weird for me. Usually I work on a top until it is done, but that hasn't been my style lately, but the weirdest part is that I don't mind it. Normally I would be getting panicked at having so many things in process, but not this time. Guess being versatile is a good thing!
Here is the progress on my Moda's Sweet Menagerie 9 patch:



I am using a Moda jelly roll called Glace. I really am liking the way this is turning out. I ran out of white, so will have to finish it up at another time. Again, normally I would run right out and get the fabric and finish it up, but nope..not tonight. I am just going to switch gears and work on something else. I work right next door to the fabric store, so will pick the white up tomorrow after work. Ohh..yeah..that's right! I get to visit with Shellie tomorrow after work, too! Yay! Feels like forever since we got to hook up.
Well, I might be back with whatever else I make some progress on tonight..IF I make any progress, that is!

Finally back to sewing!

Boy, was this visit to my sewing room long overdue!! I finished up the pieces I needed for the quilt I had in mind (you will see later in the post that I apparently miscalculated) and then had the long process of laying them out. I didn't sew the pieces into blocks yet as I am not sure this is what I want to do with them. It looked fabulous in my head, now I am not so sure! lol It is a busy quilt, but I think with the borders on, it will tame down a bit. It is all done just with scraps, so I am not too worried if I don't use them for this. I have tons of patterns that use hst's, so I am sure I will find them a home, if not set this way. I think I am liking this, but will have to take a day or two of looking at it to decide. What do you think?





Don't mind the "bald spots" in the quilt. I will be cutting out those pieces soon!

Look what a little bit of money gets you!

I wish I had something great to explain about my absence, but I have nothing. Just busy, busy with life, work, gardens and yard. The only sewing I have done is on some hst's I needed for a new quilt I am designing. I finally finished them up...a little over 500 of them. I LOVE hst's. They are in strong competition for my affections with 9 patches. Now..a design with both of them together??? HEAVEN!! I will post a pic and a little bit more about that quilt later on.

Here is what $10.70 bought me:




Jan, over at "It's the cat's house, I just live here", posted awhile back that she was thinning her stash a bit and she was willing to send folks boxes of fabric for the shipping. I jumped on that bandwagon REAL quick and asked her to send me a large boxful..cost $10.70. I threw caution to the wind and told her to send me anything. I have found that when I get stuff this way, even though it may be stuff I would never have purchased, I end up LOVING it in quilts. Nice way to expand a little! Well, as you can see, Jan didn't disappoint me. I LOVE everything she send and never expected soooooo much of it!! Thanks so very much, Jan. I will be sure to send you a pic when I incorporate some of this in my quilts!!!!

Went out to hit garage sales with Hannah...against my better judgement..this morning. I swear that girl is a sale jinx!! Usually when I bring her with me, we either find no sales or nothing at them. Today was pretty much going along that way until our last stop. There we bought this:







A close up of the design:



This is a full 12 place setting set of china including all the bells and whistles...without a single chip! Now, it can't be that new...looks like 1980's or 1990's to me, but let me tell you...with 6 kids growing up here, I have NO idea what china without chips looks like! As a matter of fact, even though the kids are almost all grown now, if you looked in my cupboards, you would find mostly plastic dinnerware, completely mixed bowls..most plastic or at the least chipped, etc. This set comes with:

12 dinner plates
12 dessert plates
12 coffee cups
12 bowls
3 canister set
3 stacking bowls
1 large covered casserole dish
1 large serving tray
salt and pepper shakers
creamer and sugar holder
spoon rest
candle holder
2 matching placemats

She was asking $50 for it..I got it for $25. Now, I know some of you may be thinking that wasn't such a great deal for an older set, but it has NO CHIPS!!! Sigh..small things make me so happy. This set really is me..maybe I am outdated, too. Hmm...
Washing everything up now so I can get it all set up in my kitchen. I am pretty sure I even have some fabric that goes with this pretty well..new napkins! Hmm..wait a minute..if we actually USE these..they will get chips..and break...and....and.....

So far, so good

It is a cold, rainy, nasty, perfect day for sewing here in western NY. So far I have made a dozen napkins (boy, were the old ones threadbare!!):

I also got the swap block top done:

I made it into a big heart...with Marie Bostwick's heart block in the center as she was the one who got us all together. It really symbolizes the heart and kindness I have seen in all the women who participate in the Cobbled Court quilters. I am still not sure on the borders, though. I might have to change those. What do you think?

Swap blocks

I just realized I forgot to put up the pics of the blocks that were swapped for Marie Bostwick's February's Women's Heart Health block swap. We used the heart pattern from her Broken Hearts Mending quilt featured in her book, A Single Thread. I really, REALLY loved that book and love these blocks. Here they are:

Dorothy and Lillian made these two.


I made this one (tho it is not one I swapped) and Beth made the other.


I made this one and swapped it and Patti made this one.


Marie Bostwick actually squeezed some time in to join us in this swap and made this one.


Shellie and Debbie made these two


Karen and Sandra S. made these


Patrice and Pam made these.

Sandra and Jacque made these.

Now you can see why I am so excited!! They did a GREAT job and made my job as swap coordinator sooooooo easy. We had everything from newbies to veterans making these blocks and I don't think I have ever met a nicer, more encouraging, caring group of ladies anywhere. Sandra, a new member of our Cobbled Court Quilt Circle, even sent each one of us a little present...thanks!!!!


Just tonight the PERFECT layout came to me for these blocks. I am going to work on the top tomorrow night and then just have to work out the border. I will share a pic of how I put these together as soon as it's done. I can't wait to see how everyone else does theirs!!

Sad, I know

So, while I was not blogging this past week, I got caught up on lots of stuff. Lots of gardening and yardwork, lots of deep, deep housecleaning and little sewing. I did go on a shop hop last week and this is what I brought home with me:

Pretty sad, huh? How can you go visit 8 quilt shops and only come home with this? I was on a quest for orange fabric. I am working on a scrap quilt and I wanted oranges that would work in a quilt for a guy. Throw in a few greens ( I am a green fanatic), a pale yellow print with flowers that caught my eye and the new Bonnie Hunter book and that was it for me. I think I spent $45 total including the $26 on the book. Hmmm..I hope I don't get kicked out of the quilting world for that. I do feel good about it, though. I certainly didn't NEED any more fabrics.
I finally got back in the sewing room and went back to work on the Jitterbug 30's quilt via text with Shellie. We made great progress and could see the finish line when we noticed something. Those lovely hst's that I posted about a while back...the 192 hst's that we made in the first step were small. Too small for the new blocks we made to go with them. Double check all our measurements..they were correct. Hmm...read through the pattern again to find out that the PATTERN gave us the wrong sizes!! I hate that. Don't they use testers on the quilts they put in books?? Not that Shellie and I don't have enough fabric..believe me, we do...but all that work. Sigh..guess we will have to do them all over again with the correct measurements. On the bright side, we now have 192 hst's to put in our NEXT 30's quilt..whatever that might be!! lol