Yawn..stretchhhhhhhhhhhh

I feel like I am coming out of hibernation it is so long since I have written anything! I enjoyed every moment of my holiday season, and I hope you did, too! I did hardly any sewing and actually enjoyed that down time, too! Let's see..where do I start? Ah..I know. Look at the wonderful mug rug that QuiltSue over at Quilt Times made me:



She sent these out to those that had participated in the Christmas quilt along. It is wayyy too pretty for sloppy me to be putting my coffee on, so it will be hung on the wall.

Next, I have to say I am like a toddler at Christmas time. My favorite part of the gifts?? This:



The boxes and tins everything comes in! lol I already have reorganized my sewing room and these are being used to house projects. Divine!!

I also got some wonderful news from Quiltmaker magazine. I had applied to be part of their Scrap Squad that they are starting up, but wasn't chosen for that. I did, however, get on the list to be a block tester for their 100 Blocks magazine! They sent me this selection of fabric:



I can use these to make the blocks with or use them for any project I would like. After I test out the block patterns, I send a pic of the block and a critique to them. I won't be able to share the pics of the blocks, though..so no trying to wheedle them out of me! It will be a "sneakret" as my kids say until AFTER the magazine comes out. Wooohoo..I LOVE sneakrets!!!

The only sewing I had done over the holidays was some handquilting on the Giant New York Sunflower quilt. I did finally get a little bit of sewing done yesterday and hope to get more done today. I have almost all the flying geese I need for my string quilt made and am also working on finishing up my Pinwheel Party top. Wish me luck on those and will post any progress on them later!!

A Good Weekend

Well, today I got a ton of stuff done. Grocery shopping, cooking for the month, laundry etc. The only thing I got done sewing wise today were these:


Binding on the mini tree table runner that I made yesterday.

Sewed the words on and quilted and bound these little quiltlets:




I also showed Hannah how to sew tonight! Woohoo! She wanted to make a gift for her two best friends, so we decided on some wall hangings with pics of them and her on them. Here she is with her finished products:



Very proud of her..she did them all on her own! Now it is midnight and we are heading to bed. Night all!

Satisfied Saturday

Well, I had a great time sewing/visiting with Shellie yesterday. We started off with some donut holes and coffee, of course. Then we moved on to exchanging gifts. As my own personal enabler, Shellie first gave me this as she knows I am addicted to quilt books:



Then, she bowled me over with this gift that she made me:



Isn't this scarf amazing?? She even made it in my fave color..green!! I wore it all day yesterday!!

I gave her her gift which was the mini tree table runner! I only said it was for my secret santa so she wouldn't know!

We did get some sewing done. First we started with these little quiltlets which still have to be embroidered. We both made 2, but I only took a pic of one:



Then we started making trees for more mini tree table runners. Shellie hadn't paper pieced before so it was fun to show her how. Once she got the hang of it, she was on a roll! I got 4 trees made before our time ran out. We then packed up Shellie's stuff and headed over to Craft Bits and Pieces so Shellie could get her bargain fix. She did great..got a ton of fabric for $10. I bought not ONE piece of fabric!! You have no idea the restraint it took! I need NOTHING, tho, so I was good. Well, until I saw this in the case:



I know it is a baaaaaad pic, but Hannah and I must have taken a million pics and couldn't get it to focus any better. I just LOVE this watch with the scissors hands! It cost me all of 4.95! lol What a deal.

Last, here is a pic of my new mini tree table runner sans binding:



I also got my Chunky churndash all sandwiched and ready to go. Need to get that quilted as it is a gift for my oldest son, Tom. Also on the agenda is helping Hannah make some picture wallhangings for her two best friends. Full day, so better get going!

Ground control...we have a problem here

Yup, we do. A BIG problem. A MONUMENTAL problem. I did make my secret santa gift tonight (and stayed away from the strings!!). The problem is, I LOVE this project. I WANT this project! I NEED this project! I don't wanna give it up! lol



Go ahead. Tell me this isn't the cutest little thing you have ever seen! Can't do it, can you?? All I have to do is hand sew the binding on the back tomorrow at lunch and decorate my little trees and it is all set.

Alright, I know if I love it this much, the person who is going to receive it will love it, too. I guess I will just have to make myself one next!! lol Btw...I found this pattern over at Stash Manicure, listed under my blogs!

String fling!

Haven't been in the sewing room at all until last night. I went in to work on a secret santa gift. Hmm..far as I know that doesn't include making more string blocks. Yet, that is what I did. I thought I would just make a few more until I started the gift. 36 blocks later, I was done for the night lol. I am now up to 60 string blocks. I am thinking that I need 120 of them. Dear God, please make me stop at 120!! I have other projects that need to be worked on! lol This Saturday Shellie is coming over for a sew in and my plan is to make the flying geese that I am planning on using with these string blocks. Worse case scenario, I will have enough blocks between those two types to end up with 2 different quilts! lol

Tonight I WILL work on the secret santa gift and another project or two. I WILL. I will show pics at the end of the night so I have some accountability here. It is already half way through the week and I haven't posted my list to get done. I better hustle butt!

1) secret santa gift
2) ornament table runner
3) quilt Chunky Churndash
4) flying geese blocks
5) 60 more string blocks..yay!! not even a DENT in the string bins!!

Now, you might remember that in November, I headed off to Ct for a retreat with a great bunch of quilters. We all met via Marie Bostwick's website. We all love her books and love quilting, so what better to get together with her and each other for a weekend! We had such a great time and guess what? It was written up by Meg Cox of Quilter's Home Magazine! You can read the article here and check out a pic of us all together!! I just can't wait until next year's retreat!! If you are interested, check out Marie's site. We have a great forum there where we all chat, share recipes, gift ideas, quilting stories, etc. It is a great community to be in!!

Updates later!!

Hmmm....

...now I just don't know. It looked great in my head, but my idea for my string blocks now might be too busy. Ha..who'da thunk I would think anything could be too busy? I really love the Road to California block and I thought I would mix it up a bit by putting my string blocks where there normally would be solid blocks. I only made the pieces for 6 blocks so far. I don't have the units sewn together yet as I am not sure where I am going with this yet. I will keep making more blocks and then see what I think. Since they are not sewn together, I can always make something else out of them! lol

Here are 2 versions:




The only difference is one version has the strings making x's in the centers and the other has o's being made.

Okay..I lied. Seeing them on the computer here is sooooo much different than eyeing them up on the ground. Seeing them here...I LOVE them! lol So, change my hmmmm..I don't know to hmmmmm...I LOVE these! lol

Now, tell me what YOU think..HONESTLY. My feelings won't be hurt. Some nice solid borders around it all..mebbe..that is the plan, anywho. Who knows what it will be when I get there?? lol

Oh...oh...oh...!!!

An idea just popped into my head on what to do with my string blocks. Oh, I hope it works. Off to go play now and see if it looks as good in real life as it does in my head. Wish me luck and I will show you what I am up to in a bit!

Important Human Service Announcement

The light chat on my blog stops for today. No pictures of projects being worked on will be shown..though I do have some for tomorrow.

I am stopping the frivolity for the day to remember 1985. Do you remember it? I was 21 way back then. The 80's were a lot of things, and most we would like to forget. One thing stands out, though, that we as humans dare NOT forget. 1985...the year when it seemed like the world cared..and we could and WOULD do something to make the world a better place. Where has that gone? We are all so caught up in our lives that it seems like we have forgotten that the world doesn't revolve around us. I have been scurrying around trying to get things done for the holidays and I bet you have, too. Does that extra plate of cookies we HAVE to make really matter? Will Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) really be ruined if something doesn't get done?

What about the people who are hungry tonight? Who tuck their children in with empty bellies? Who live on the streets and huddle together to stay warm? Breaks my heart...and I know it must be breaking God's heart.

You can't watch these videos from 1985 and NOT catch that contagious fire of making the world a better place. So, I am challenging you. Put these videos on your blog so that others can catch this fire. I will be keeping these videos on my blog through the month of December to keep reminding myself..and you..of what we used to think we could do. I would love it if you would, also..and if you would leave me a message of what you have done.

I am going down to the Open Door Mission in Rochester to hand out my quilts tonight to some of the folks. What are YOU going to do..today...NOW?

License to swirl has been revoked

Finished quilting Patrick's Twisted 9 patch today. I quilted it in a swirl pattern, and I still suck at swirls! Sheesh..who'da thunk that making swirls would get the better of me?? The good news is the pattern is busy enough that you don't notice the stinky swirls. The better news is that it is one more thing off my to do list! It is such a dreary, wet day that I couldn't bring the quilt outside for a pic and had to settle for under our covered walkway, so this will have to do for now:



Still have to handsew the binding down tonight. This great pattern can be found at maryquilts.com.

Oh, here are a pic of the string blocks so far:



There are 26 of them. I am itching to make more, but have to work on some other things first! Good motivation! Off I go to work on more of this past week's list. How are you doing on your list?

Dog bed done!

Take one ugly pillowcase:



Pin it next to you on your ironing board and fill it up with all those scraps too tiny for anything:



Zigzag stitch the ugly pillowcase up and make a pretty french seam pillowcase and insert ugly pillowcase:



Add one 3 legged Schipperke named Delilah who loves her crate (we don't even close the door..she just goes in there at night and don't EVER try to stick your hand in there when she is in there..FIERCE protection mode then!)..and you get one very happy puppy:



I love using those scraps that I ordinarily would just throw out. Plus, if she gets the top pillowcase dirty, in the wash it goes. If the whole thing gets stinky..in the wash the whole thing can go! I actually have another pillowcase already filled and the sewing room cats might just get a bed out of that. Hmm..have the feeling that even if I make them one, they will still prefer to sleep on whichever quilt I am working on!! lol
Two things done on this week's list..this and got a bag of scraps cut up. Unfortunately, those were the two quick and easy ones. I might actually have more done if those string blocks weren't so addicting! I have 26 of those done now! lol Oh well..on to the next!