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!!