Cobblestones Update

Yeah, I'm moving slow on this but yesterday was one of those days where I got distracted at every turn. Here's a picture of the first 2 rows of this quilt. I really like how it looks so after I get a little New Years Eve cleanup done I'm going to go back in and assemble a few more rows.

So, what's everyone doing for tonight? Hubby and I are going to have dinner out and then go to a movie. We haven't decided on whether we're going to see Nine, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Up in the Air or The Blind Side. I like movies with a lot of music and dancing so I know I'd enjoy Nine. I think I'd be fine with seeing any one of the movies so once we eat we'll go to whichever one comes on next. How's that for scientific planning?

I hope everyone has a safe evening and a Happy 2010!

Peggy

Cobble Stones Update

Gotta love Christmas break from school. You can get up and move at your own pace and either clean, cook or sew. I did a little bit of everything today. I did some running around in the morning, made a BIG pot of spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausage then after lunch i did laundry and sewed these 30 blocks. They are the Cobble Stone blocks that are the main part of the Fig Tree project I was working on yesterday. Now, I need to read the next step to see how to do the assembly. Stay tuned.......

What Have I Been Doing All Day???

You might ask what I've been doing all day....certainly not shopping/returning any gifts that's for sure!!! NO ONE in my house needs to do any exchanging this year YAHOO!!!

BUT, I have been sewing. It's nice to be working on a project that has no deadline....

I joined the Fat Quarter Shop's Fig Tree Club back around September I think. It's a 4 project club so I figured I could manage. I got the first kit a few weeks back but with the holidays I just could not even open the package...but I did the other day, and actually cut into it. This project is called "Cobble Stones". It looked like a fairly simple project but man o man, there is a lot of cutting and also a lot of line drawing. There are 120 4 inch blocks that need half square triangles on 2 corners. Here's about 1/4 of the blocks that I have done so far...........the fabrics on the left and the small 2 inch squares are all connector pieces and then there are 71 2 x 2-1/2 in pieces of all the printed fabrics that go with it too....as well as the rest of the 120 blocks. I still have a couple of hours of work to do on these blocks so stay tuned to my progress.

It's been raining like crazy here in New Jersey today so all the snow we got last weekend is virtually gone. School is closed so I'm off until January 4th so I will be sewing like crazy I hope...

Peggy

Could it be my birthday every day?

Could it? Could it??? I am having the absolute best day....Flowers from my hubby which are beautiful read and white tulips with candy canes mixed in, a platter of cookies from my neighbor Rose, who actually works with me, and some wonderful half yard pieces of fabric from my friend April, who I work with too....I also received soooo many emails and text messages wishing me a great day that it will be hard to wake up tomorrow and not have it be my birthday...so, for anyone out there that likes to give presents, I'm extending my birthday to the 23rd also :)

Here's a peek at April's fabric selection....

The 3 fabrics on the right are Heather Ross mermaids, fish and seahorses. The 2 on the left have selvages but are written in either chinese or japanese and have a "different" feel to them. The top fabric is orange and pink snails and the bottom looks like princess and the pea. Who knew that April was listening to all my ramblings while she sat so quietly in work by my desk? Not me!!! Thank you April!

OH, and in case you NEED to know, the fabrics were ordered from Fabricworm. She has a website and an etsy store. I may be emailing her to get info about those 2 cute fabrics on the left.

Peggy

An Early Birthday Present

I feel awful. I got this early birthday present last week but didn't post about it because my camera was not charged so here it is now...better late than never. Michelle made me the cutest pillow, sent a box o turtles (YUM) a fat quarter of donuts fabric and a tea infuser with the cutest purple dotted teacup as the handle.....The pillow matches my red chair perfectly don't you think?

Oh, and just so you know...the TURTLES were YUMMY!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Yes siree Bob, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in my house... I came home this afternoon and found two wonderful boxes on my kitchen counter from two of the bestest quilting sisters ever. I had the Bareroots pattern with the customary fabric and floss all packaged up in a cute handmade bag, a wooly ornie, candlemat, mug, M&M's and a tree ornie all from Michelle along with a cute Christmas card with her and her family on it. The next box was from Robin and lemme tell you, spoiled again...candle mat pattern with floss and woolfelt, ornie, candy, note cards, journal, candle warmer and a homemade scarf...

These girls really spoiled me......

Thank you girls............... PS: The scarf is for my birthday tomorrow....

I can't stop looking at all the goodies...I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends.....

CRUNCH

My poor car got crunched this afternoon :( My daughter was on the Parkway when the girl in front of her stopped short because someone had cut her off. My grill and hood are a mess but I think the car is driveable. Neither girl was hurt, so that's a good thing but now comes the process of dealing with the car insurance company....YUCK!

Snow, snow and more snow

The darn snow would not stop....hubby said at 7am it was still snowing this morning so we have had 24 hours of straight snow... Here's a picture of our 18-20 inches out front. The kids have decided that this snowblower is not sufficient for Poppy, no siree bob, Father's Day is going to be bringing him something a little more substantial.

We never know when we'll get hit in NJ so we need to upgrade just a bit since our driveway holds 5 cars across and 2 deep.

Oh yeah, and the good news...School is closed tomorrow!!! YAY. I can finish shopping and get a little sewing done too.

The final 2 finishes for 2009

I think these might be the final 2 finishes for 2009....I think, I'm not sure since there are 12 more days left.........First we have a little tabletopper I made this afternoon. I know I have one that I've used in the past but for the life of me I can't find it so when my daughter asked me the other day when I was going to put the red, white and blue one away and pull out something Christmasy I realized that it was missing and I'd have to make something else. My creative juices weren't flowing so it's just simple but I like how it looks and it goes great on the coffee table.

Then I put the last 2 rows on this quit that is called "Picture This" from the HAPPY HOUR book by Atkinson Designs. I had a fat quarter packet of all these black/white/turquoise fabrics and when I cleaned out my cabinet I found a lot more so I made the quilt in Queen Size and will give it to my daughter for her birthday on May 1st. It feels good to have a jump on a birthday present when I should be worrying about Christmas presents but heck, a gift's a gift....

Once I get it quilted I'll get a better picture of it.
I didn't have any "quilt holders" to help hold it up so I had to take what I could get and just lay it out on the floor.

Now to clean up my sewing room and put all the scraps in the bin, fabric away and shut the iron down.

How's everyone enjoying their weekend?

LOOKIE what we woke up to today

Guess what we woke up to this morning???

I do LOVE the snow but was kind of hoping for a snow day from school :) But, I'll take what I can get when it comes to being shut in the house and able to sew all day.

This first picture is the front of the house. Where the heck is the street????

Below is a the back yard.....YIKES, we're not going to see the grass and pool till June!!!

We only had one problem with the weather this morning and that was when my daughter was leaving the house at 7:30 to get to the salon for work and she slid and hit the light pole while trying to get on the

Garden State Parkway. Thankfully, the car has minimal damage and my daughter is ok, but she sure was scared.

So, what is everyone doing today???

Peggy

An Early Christmas Present

I LOVE getting early presents for ANY holiday so when I came in from work the other day and found a priority box out front I really got excited. After seeing that it was from my friend Christie in Fort Knox, Kentucky, I knew I couldn't open it right away because I hadn't mailed her gift yet. Some of the girls I go to retreat with in Indiana decided to do a one on one holiday swap with a $20 limit....Now, you know with a $20 limit you have to be creative and I think Christie was. I had a hard time sticking to the limit because everything I saw I wanted to buy..... So, I finally opened my box this morning because I shipped my box out Priority earlier today. Here's what I got.

Christie's without a sewing machine right now so I got a purple knitted or crocheted scarf (i'm not sure which it is) plus some candy, fabric, a tea mug filled with candy, a ME journal and a skinny santa. I'm thrilled with what I got so a big THANK YOU goes out to Christie....See you in May at retreat girlfriend!!!!

Peggy

Hocuspocusville

Is anyone else out there doing the Hocuspocusville quilt? I know Vickie and Robin are, and actually after I saw Vickie working on her embroidery blocks back in May I decided that I had to do that quilt. It is of course another Crabapple Hill pattern and I'm obsessed with their stuff so I the minute my pattern and fabric arrived on Wednesday I immediately traced it. I wasn't going to start working on it right away because I'm already doing their Berry Pickin project but I said to myself on Thursday while I was waiting for family to arrive "just a few stitches to see how it looks".....well, a few turned into a LOT of stitches that night. I couldn't help myself, once I picked up the needle and floss and started I kept at it until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. Since I'm not involved in anything major right now at the machine I decided to make up the 9 patch blocks that make up the center of the quilt. The shop I'm doing this with supplied the fabric for everything plus black floss and they even sent along a brown pigma pen to trace it all.

I am taking this project to work with me and only working on it at lunch and break time so I can focus on my other project at home.

Peggy

Aye Carumba

I've been busy working on this flannel quilt this week (when I can keep my eyes open) so I haven't read blogs nor have I posted. I'm almost ready to send it out for quilting but first I have to get the final border on. It's a beautiful rust floral and if I get off this computer tonight early I will start connecting it so I can mail it on Saturday. It's a very simple Thimbleberries pattern that worked up super fast, which is exactly what I was looking for last weekend...

So, how many of you out there do block of the month's with your favorite shops? I like to do them with the shop in town but when I don't have one going with them I like to do the ones that Main Street Cotton Shop offers. This year I was doing 3 with them...I know, I know OVERKILL. But, I couldn't just pass any one of the 3 up. I was expecting that BOM this week but when it didn't come Tuesday I said, "ok, it will come Wednesday"....well, I was getting ready to go out when I saw UPS stop out front. My man in brown did NOT bring my customary white tyvek bag up from Main Street so I was a little disappointed...I wanted my BOM's dammit!!! So, I went out and brought in the boxes which all had hubby's name on them EXCEPT for the bottom big box that had my name on it.... OMG, a BOX from Main Street... I was so excited!!! The November projects were bigger than the others this year so I was blessed with a BOX O Fabric!!!YEE HAW!!! I now have "Winter Stars" quilt kit with backing, The Welcome to the Table Club is called "Christmas Flower Square" table topper with a thank you for joining which is a Twice the Charm roll, and one of the quarterly club kits called " Christmas Brick Walk" and backing fabric, which is a big ornament print and you add bricks around it with 2 borders. The new Thimbleberries fabrics are just wonderful so that might be the next project I start this weekend... Now to find some time to get all of these blocks of the month done....

I have also done some sewing on a project for a Christmas exchange with my Backporch Friends online group but I can't show you yet what I made 'cause Christie might just peek and I don't want the surprise to be ruined. I have to mail it by December 3rd so once it's mailed and I'm sure Christie has it in her hot little hands then I'll post a picture... In the meantime, how's everyone doing?

PEGGY

FUN FABRIC

I've been on a search for "fun fabric" to make some chinese coins kiddie quilts. I like to have little quilts on hand in case I need one fast and don't have time to do them. I made one earlier in the year for my daughter's godchild and used up almost everything I had in the kiddie stash so now I have to stash build again. I found these Heather Ross fabrics online last week and ordered them and was quite surprised at how fast they came. I am obsessed with VW busses/cars and gnomes so to find them was a great thing. I also got an unused pajama sleeve with these cute fish in bags like you find at a carnival. LOVE THEM!!! The other fabrics on top are Heather Ross's new line that has Octopus, fish and mermaids...VERY CUTE!!!

Anyone out there have some kiddie fabric they'd like to swap for Thimbleberries, 30's, $$$ or something else?

Are they cute or what?

I was in Florida this week visiting my mother. My nephew, his wife and 2 kids live right across the street and were over visiting the entire time. Little Steven just turned 3 and Matthew will be 1 on December 18th....they are just the cutest kids ever!!!

My daughter Jennifer came for the trip with us and totally enjoyed playing with the boys....I kept reminding her I "NEED" to be a grandmother now but i'm rethinking that "now" business since I was absolutely exhausted after they left at night. I did NOT remember how much work it is keeping up with little hands touching and little ones learning to walk on top of all the questions 3 year olds ask.... Mom has your typical lanai off the back of the house which we totally enjoyed being in. OOPS...hubby's not gonna be happy seeing his picture in the background...... :) Sorry Al. I think it was over 90 each day, which is a big difference from here in NJ today, which is only 48...but I will take the chilly weather over all that heat and having to sit in the AC. I had enough of that this summer, I'm ready for snow.

1 Down, a LOT more to go

I have 1 Christmas present done but a lot more to go...I'm just happy with one for now especially since it's only the 6th of November. I started this quilt about a month or so ago and was thinking as I was making it that I'd never done one for my BIL in Florida and he did ask a long time ago but I just didn't know what to make. So I thought when hubby came home from his visit with his brother that I'd ask him if he thought this was manly enough and did he want me to finish it and I could send it to him for Christmas. WELL....hubby came home and said to me "hey, my brother asked what I thought you were doing while we were visiting and I said sewing. He reminded me that he'd never gotten a quilt from you and could I talk to you about making him one to throw over his leather couch". I whipped the quilt out and said "great minds think alike...I made this while you were away". He really liked the colors and since his brother is a big fan of RED it will work wonderful. So, I had it quilted and finished the binding last night so now it's ready for the holidays. OH...and by the way, if you enlarge the picture I think you can see the quilting....my friend Sandi quilted it with musical notes all over it! My BIL is big into music and performs in community theatre in Florida so I think the quilting just jazzes the whole thing up.

Happy Halloween

I think it's been about 10 years or more since all 3 of my kids went out for Halloween together.

Once the older 2 got into high school they didn't want the younger one around and then by the time she was old enough to really "party" they were off at college and such. This year though my oldest daughter decided to have a party at her friend's house. I managed to get the 3 kids to pose for a picture all together before they left. Sarah was the Queen of Hearts, Dan was the gingerbread boy from Shrek and Jen was a vampire. Quite a difference from the days of cowboys, princesses and kitties.....

On another note, hubby, Jen and I are taking off to Florida in a few hours to visit my mother. We haven't been down to her house I think in 2 years so since school is closed for a week we're taking a couple days and heading south.

Be back and blogging on Thursday....till then, have a good week.

Peggy

Donation Quilt

The school that I work in does a lot of charity work for the local veterans organizations, our local zoo, underpriveleged kids etc. Well, last year I donated a quilt and we sold raffle tickets for an orphanage that a local girl set up. We netted some good money from that so the other day one of the teachers that runs some of these groups asked if I had a quilt that we could raffle off again. I told her I did and we started the next morning selling tickets... I donated my "Flowers for Maddie" quilt which I really loved, but the raffle is for a good cause so I didn't really mind donating it.

If I miss it that much I can always remake it for myself :)

I have been asked if I would make something in red, white, and blue for after the first of the year so that's a project I'll be putting on my 2010 Git er Done list.

Hope everyone had a good Saturday.

Peggy

Happy Saturday

Happy Saturday everyone.....

If you're living on the east coast you are probably enjoying the beautiful 70 degree weather that we are here in New Jersey. We get the best of both worlds, leaves turning beautiful orange and yellow and browns and also a day here and there that's 70.... I sure would miss that if I ever moved away from here.

On a quilty note, I made a birthday block for one of the girls in an online group I've belonged to for quite a few years....don't actually remember how long but I have quite a few bags o block to prove it! Anyhoo, the November girl is looking for a log cabin made with a white on white that she provided and brights. She was looking for dots, stripes etc, and her only request was the final bright strips were blue. I have a lot of brights and dots so this was an easy one for me to make. Marsha, I hope you like it.....

Big Bertha is Finished

Yes folks, Big Bertha is finished. Had her all clipped to the clothesline real nice and as I went to click the picture, a very slight breeze blew in and sent it waving but it's the best picture I could get today.

I now know why Karen called the quilt "BIG" Bertha...this gal is huge!!! Now I need to get a backing for it and figure out how it should be quilted.

And just in case you were wondering...Yes, I do work, but I've been off for 2 days with the itchy scratchies on the backs of both legs. Went for blood work this morning to determine whether the bumpies are from a virus associated with the head cold I have or chicken pox. I say it's a virus but the good doc will let me know tomorrow...

I got yet, 2 more quilts back yesterday that need bindings attached so I think I best devote a little time to them today and get the bindings done...the tacking down can get done while I'm vegging in front of the TV at night.

Peggy

EYE CANDY

How's this for eye candy??? "Mezzanine" from Michael Miller Fabrics.....I'm not much of a fru fru pink and lime green kinda gal but these fabrics just caught my eye when I saw them....

Also, how do you like this basket? It has a front and back section with a cute wooden handle.

I ordered it from Baskets by Dawn in Murphy, NC....Each basket is handmade and I have to tell you, her turnaround time is super quick....

12 days till Halloween blog giveaway

http://www.pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/
12 Days till Halloween blog giveaway...You don't want to miss this one!!!

Peggy

One Wedding Picture

I had a request for a wedding picture and since I don't have a lot I thought I'd just show one that the uncle of the bride took and one that I took of my 2 girls. My oldest daughter was maid of honor .

Samantha's dress was made by her grandmother and my daughter did her hair. I like this picture because it really shows how much in love these 2 really are! The groom was so emotional as the guests and wedding party started coming in that he could not stop crying....

Best Wishes to Samantha and Jason...lots of happy years ahead for both of you!!!

Home and working on a new project

We're home from beautiful 95 degree Puerto Rico, just in time for rain, snow and 50 degree temperatures....

I bought this book just before I left to go away. The quilt that's on the cover is called "Big Bertha" and the original quilt is hanging in Quilting Possibilities Quilt Shop here in town. I admire it every time I go in the shop and have even emailed Karen Snyder, the designer, asking to buy it from her or if she's not interested in that, if she remembered the fabric line, I could duplicate it myself. Karen wasn't sure what she used so I looked around and just bought yardage that I thought would look nice using her pattern. It's called Neutral Territory by Red Rooster.

My colorway is not as much of a salmon colored, more of an orange, and instead of using lime green, my fabric had a nice turquoise in it. Here is one of the units. I have quite a few of the units done but I think I have about 10 more to go before I can start laying them out and assembling the top. I don't have someone in mind for it yet but it might just be something I keep for myself this time...we'll see after it's all assembled.

How's your rainy Saturday going?

Peggy

To Market To Market

NAH, I'm not going to Market, here's where I'll be this time tomorrow (Friday).

I'll be at the Wyndham Rio Mar Resort in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. My daughter's best friend is getting married there on Saturday and we were invited so we leave here tonight....

Have a good weekend everyone and I'll be back late, late, late Monday, so I'll post all about it on Tuesday.

Peggy

Pincushions

Remember back a bit I blogged about my love for pincushions? Well, our friend Liz, moderator of one of the yahoo groups was the hostess this time for another pincushion swap. Since I am a junkie, I did 2 sets. I made these hot pink rooster-like ones that I hot glued to painted candlesticks and then I made my donuts...everyone loves a good donut now, don't they?



Well, today I got my stash back......

I got round ones, I got one that is an iron, I got a bird, a flower, a cake in a bag and a cherry tart... I LOVE each and every one.

I'm already to start making for the next swap round, but I think I better not suggest that until after the first of the year....

Peggy

Sewing Room

I love checking out blogs when girls show their before and after pictures. I always start cleaning my room and THEN take a picture. I always forget the before picture.....

I don't have a big room, it's like 8 x 12 or something crazy like that. You don't want to go turning around too quick in there or you land on something. Here's 3 pictures of my cutting and sewing area. I have a lot of pincushions on the shelves over my cutting area and above the cork board over my sewing machine is another shelf with some pincushions.I'm in another pincushion swap that ends this week so I'll have more to show next week maybe...

Twice the Charm

Yesterday was an ugly, rainy, cool day so I spent my day cutting out my Twice the Charm kit called "Subtle". It's part of the Main Street Cotton Shop's club. The center of the blocks are a black/brown print and the outside are 48 different charm strips from their Subtle Solids line.

I got all the blocks assembled and I got the rows done but they are not connected...I just couldn't wait though so I took them outside and arranged them on the lawn

I also spent some time and finished up my pincushions for a swap I'm doing with one of my online quilting groups

Can it really be 21 years ago today?

9/9/2009

Can it really be that my "baby" is 21 today? I find it hard to believe but it is true...

Happy 21st Birthday Sarah!!!!

This picture is from last year....We won't be celebrating with her in person this year but we sure will be thinking about her.

Playful

This quilt is 48 x 48 and made with a jelly roll of Thimbleberries "Play Date" fabric. I cut the strips last night and then tonight I assembled it. It was a quick and easy project...now to sandwich and quilt it. Seems I've been asked for quite a few baby quilts lately so I thought I'd make a few to have on hand when they're needed.

What's everyone doing for the holiday weekend?

We leave around noon tomorrow (Sat) to take my youngest to college up in Rhode Island. It's a long boring ride from NJ so I have some woolfelt pincushions cut for buttonholing, a book, and thanks to Vickie, I have the new QUILT SAMPLER to read and browse while riding in the car.

Stay safe and enjoy the weekend. I'll be back Sunday night.

Peggy

Blog Giveaway

You have to go over to the Jolly Jabber and check out her blog giveaway....it's a Fig Tree Jelly Roll and it is part of the new club she's doing....go check it out. http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/

Another One Bites the Dust

YAY....I finished another quilt....well, almost. I have the top done, now to find some backing and get it quilted. I think this is the quickest I've ever assembled a top. I love the pattern and I'm thinking I need to make this again in another colorway.....What do you think?

Peggy

I'm working on another one

I have been working on another quilt for the past 2 days. It's a Heather Mulder Peterson pattern called "Double Takes II" which can be seen here http://ankastreasures.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/double-takes-2-cover-500-x-772.jpg

I bought it with a fabric kit back around Easter but never did anything with it.

Here's what it looked like this morning after making 36 9 inch half square triangles last night

The green fabric at the bottom will be the first border and the pink will be the outside border....first though I have to add white squares to these hst blocks.....

I worked all afternoon on it and here's what it looks like tonight.

Aple Orchard Runner

Yes, Robin talked me into joining a new Block of the Month Club with her back at the beginning of the summer, and this week we got our first kit. It's called Apple Orchard and it's made from all Thimbleberries Fabrics. I cut my kit out last night and after lunch today I assembled it. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I have to sandwich it and do the quilting and binding but I wanted to show you how it looks so far......