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......

CLEANING OUT MY CABINETS

In an effort to clean out my sewing room cabinets and use up the fabric I have I remembered about this Sanctuary fabric that I have and want to use to make a rail fence quilt. I have 14 quarter yard pieces, 2 1 yard pieces and a piece approx 3 yards. I need more in order to make the top but the theme for 2009 is "use it up" not "buy it up" so I can't buy more in order to start.

Here's where you girls come in. Does anyone have some of this fabric that they'd like to SWAP for a Thimbleberries kit? I probably have every kit that they make so all you'd have to do is decide what you'd like and I'd swap with you....within reason of course. I'm not sending you a $100 kit for 2 1 yard pieces now...I'm desperate but not "crazy".... well, some might say I'm crazy but....

OR, I have some Gingham Girls fat quarters, or some New Hats Old Friends fabric by Sandy Gervais......

Please email me and we'll get to swappin....

Peggy

I'm working on it

Michelle, Robin and I are all working on Gail Pan's "Busy Little Christmas Elves" embroidery blocks and we're all doing them in a different colorway. Michelle is doing hers in red, Robin is doing hers in teal, and I'm doing mine in a variegated green. I guess for about a month now once I shut the sewing machine down at night I will sit till almost midnight stitching on my little blocks so I have quite a few done. I'm sure once Michelle returns from her trek across the country she'll have a couple more done too. Robin is only doing hers in between her crows, christmas wishes and a variety of other projects. Well, I decided I'd assemble what I have and got the first row finished earlier tonight. The fabric that I chose as the focus is a white with Christmas lights in multiple colors of green and red so I figured I could use both red and green fabrics in my assembly. If assembled as the instructions are written, the quilt will finish up to be 56 x 56. I'm off to start the assembly of row 2 now.

Peggy

Seaside Quilt

Back on July 31st I ran across Jaybird Quilt's Blog with her post about buying a quilt. The minute I saw the blocks and fabric I knew I had to have the same quilt. I know, I know, I'm a copycat but I just had to, it was so gorgeous! So, I went on the internet and started buying up blocks of the fabric and even stumbled across a gal on Etsy that had a huge bundle of it. I was fully set to make the quilt. The minute the fabric arrived I started cutting and voile...this afternoon we have a finished quilt!

I took some liberties with the borders since I wanted a wider blue border than the designer had planned and I didn't have the big floral she used on her border but I did have a smaller floral, but other than that, I have the same quilt. Off to the quilter it goes tomorrow afternoon!!! It was hard to get a good picture but I think you can get a good idea of how beautiful it looks...

Peggy

A Giveaway

You have to check out Heather Mulder Peterson's giveaway. She has the best patterns and fabric......I'm heading over now to enter to win....

We Have a Winner

Yes folks, we do have a winner...I was going to wait until Saturday to post but heck....we have a winner so I might as well announce it. The winner is Angela at the Country Cellar! I had quite a few girls that guessed my birthday....hmmmmm, wonder how that happened? So, I'll be mailing out Angela's packie either tomorrow or Saturday. Congrats Ange!
PS: My birthday is 12/22/54- YES, I will be 55 this December!!!

A New Blog Giveaway

Michelle is having a blog giveaway....She's got a great pincushion/scrap holder up there to be given away so hop on over and enter to win : http://afwife85.blogspot.com/
Hurry, hurry......

Impatient

I couldn't wait, I'm impatient, I had to cut into the Surf and Sand fabric.....I knew I wouldn't have enough of the stripe to do many blocks but I did get 4 of them done. Each block is 18 X 18 so I only need 9 of them.

This is going to be a GORGEOUS quilt.

I sure hope the stripe gets here soon....I'm anxious to get a few more done....

Blog Giveaway

As promised, I'm having a blog giveaway. While organizing my embroidery bin yesterday I found that I have 2 of the same pattern. It's called "OLD GLORY" by Crabapple Hill. I LOVE Crabapple's patterns but I really don't need 2 of the same pattern so here's a chance for YOU to own this pattern too. I've put together the necessary floss, floss bags, beads and needles. All you need is the time to do the embroidery and make the pillow. Here's what you have to do....Post a comment guessing my birthday and the closest to the actual date will be picked. I will be picking the winner on August 22nd!
PS: it is not 8/22, and I have not celebrated yet this year.

Peggy

Fabric Has Been Found

I had quite a few emails about the fabric I needed and one girl's suggestion of a shop was just the ticket. I've ordered what I need already and it's on it's way...
Thank you Lori for all your help.
Peggy

191 Posts and Still Going

WOW, who would have ever thought I would ever reach 191 posts? Not me, that's for sure.

I think I will celebrate with a blog giveaway tomorrow.....so, check back then.

In the meantime, I decided to cut out the fabric for this Seaside pattern by Nancy Rink. I found a gal on Etsy that was selling yardage from the entire line of Surf and Sand by Marcus Bros. which happens to be the line Nancy used for her quilt so I snatched it up. I got it all washed and pressed and decided yesterday to cut it out, this way, when I'm not busy I can start making the quilt. I got everything cut and then got to the last instruction piece and it says to cut the stripe into 36 strips. HEY....what's up with that? I only have 1/2 a yard of the stripe! So, I'm putting this out there....

Can anyone help me out with 1/2 a yard or more?????

I'm not asking for a hand out, anyone that knows me knows I will be generous in paying for it or swapping for something else you want or need. So....anyone have any??????

Peggy

I'm Done!

I finished Block #1 on my new Berry Picking Block of the Month. Michelle, Robin and Liz are also doing this and we are enjoying the stitching on it. We tried dragging Vickie S into it but she very politely told us to get lost...she wasn't joining another one even though she was lusting over Liz's pile of floss. Vickie just LOVES floss! Said she's got an obsession or something for it LOL.

So, as I was saying, I finished my block. It took 2 weeks from the day it came to attaching the border fabrics. There's a lot of embroidery on it and since it's done on a gorgeous white on white, you have to wash your hands any time you walk away and come back to it. And yes, when you prick your finger, a warning is to put a darn band aid on it, don't just think you've stopped the blood....ask me how I know this.

It is not an easy block to photograph, I think the light pastels and the shiny tone on tones do something to the picture.

It is gorgeous though and I'm anxiously awaiting the next block to get here.

Peggy

Pincushions, continued.........

I thought I'd dig up a few more pincushion pictures...I thought that any of the newbie collector/swappers out there might need some inspiration....This cute flower is made from woolfelt with some buttonhole stitching and some beading. This Mary E pincushion is one from a swap, but not in my posession...anyone out there have one I can get my hot little hands on?We have some roosters, rolling pins, mice, cats, watermelon slices, pretty fabric flowers....the list is endless. Now, don't ask me how "spidey" got in the mix....I'm thinking this picture might just be Robin's or Michelle's and someone...I don't know who that would be, but someone sent a spidey to visit and they put him out as a "watch spidey maybe?".

So, if you're joining a swap or just want to start making and collecting them and need some inspiration, just look here and lemme tell you, the internet is a wealth of information on pincushion patterns. Ask me how I know that... LOL

Pincushions and Can We Ever Have Enough

Yes, I ask that question "Can we ever have enough pincushions?". I for one have to say "NO".

I love pincushions and have them all over the house...not as decorations though, I take one with me wherever I am sewing and kinda forget to grab it when I leave the room.

Lemme show you a picture of some of my favorites and then maybe you'll share some of yours..

These brown Thimbleberries ones that looks sorta like a flower Michelle made for a swap and for some reason I use that ALL the time next to my sewing machine and I have a woolfelt log one seen here (yellow log with pink flower)that I use on my cutting table that Robin gave me quite a few years ago. Most of these I just display on shelves in my sewing room.... I won't even count how many I have but I think when I repaint the sewing room I'm going to make more shelves to display them all on.....then maybe I'll count them.

OH, and I'll be getting at least 6 more in September because Liz from our BPF group just had a sign up for a pincushion swap... I'll show you mine when I get around to finishing them and before I mail them off to Liz.

For now, I'm off to Joann's to get more beads to make more pincushions...

Peggy

Busy Little Elves Update

I finished assembling block # 2a this afternoon.
Cute isn't it?
Unfortunately for me, I don't have any more of the embroidered blocks done so I did some tracing and tonight I'll be sitting doing 2b so I can assemble and finish # 2 tomorrow.

Is anyone else doing these blocks?

Peggy

Busy Little Elves

I finally found a rainy day to finish assembling block 1 of the Busy Little Elves.

I am enjoying working on these a lot.

Now to go and get some more of the blocks embroidered so I can maybe get this done in 2009!

Peggy

More Elfs and a Finish

I finished the embroidery on 2 more of Gail Pan's "Busy Little Elves". These 2 blocks are only 6.5 in and I'm doing them in a green variegated floss. I'm not thrilled with the lack of variegation in this particular DMC floss but I like the colors so I'll continue. I'm sure once all the blocks are done they will look nice, especially since I have some really cute fabric for the borders.

Also, Robin is OBSESSED with Halloween and all the decorations than come with the holiday. She's made her halloweenie list and I am sure she'll make the time to get to all of them. I don't know that I've ever met anyone quite like Robin....I can only imagine what her house looks like at Halloween...... I started this runner in May and finally got the borders on it and ready for quilting....Can't have Robin doing "Halloweenie in August" all by herself now can we? :)