How Do YOU Eat M&M's

I know, it's a crazy question but one I thought needed asking.

I like to grab a handful or even one of the snack size bags and lay them out on the cutting table etc.....  And YES, I sort them by color and eat the pile with the smallest amount first and work my way up.  I know....I'm crazy but a good friend of mine, Peggy, likes to pick on me and tell me she's never met anyone that even really looked at them.  She thinks everyone just pops them in their mouth.  I can't be the only person that does this am I?

Whatever..........

So, this was a week of finding some random bags of blocks that have been "hiding" in the back of a closet.  The first bag was some blue rose print.  I can clearly remember loving the fabric and buying yards of it.  I was in a swap group with some girls and we decided to send one another a fat quarter of focus fabric and something for the background.  I'm sure I have pictures somewhere of the others blocks but they're most likely on an older computer.  I picked the rose print with a white on white....  Well, this week I pulled them out threw them up on the design wall and set them simply three across with 4 down.  No sashing, no cornerstones, NOTHING.

Then I grabbed a blue on white print that was in the bag with the blocks, made some checkerboard border and voile..... a nice top for Ronald McDonald House.

I've met a few girls on Instagram that are making and donating quilts to RMDH so I've been sending them to the main coordinator in Texas who started the whole process as a memory of her mom who passed away in December.  I've made approximately 10-12 so far and have tried getting the word out on IG to "friends" hoping they'd feel like doing something nice too.

The other baggie of blocks is this one.

There are 20 Split Nine Patch blocks in the bag along with a huge pile of the strips (most likely for a border)  along with at least 5 yards of various blue pieces of fabric.....
I've laid the blocks out on the design wall and kind of like this look so I'm going to sew them up this afternoon or Monday and use the strip sets for a border then most likely i'll piece a backing and make some binding and ship them off to Texas as my June contribution.  They take any "tops" under 45 inches (and you don't have to send backing/binding) or you can send finished tops any size to them....
If you are so inclined, email me and I'll send you the mailing address...it is a good cause!

Here's a picture of our granddaughter Olivia at the park yesterday.  I was a little scared to swing her too high on the swing on the left so I only let her go a little bit.  I was so scared she'd let go and bang...grandma would be in the doghouse with mommy....  I distracted her with some sliding board rides then put her in the swing I wasn't afraid she'd fall out of.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Father's Day with Grandpa there :)  and also we have a full piñata for a "gender reveal" celebration to find out if Olivia is going to have a new brother or sister in October.....
stay tuned.  
Grandma here is hoping for a little brother but will be happy either way.

UPDATE on the scrappy stash busting rectangle quilt

    I'm still stash busting and using up lots and lots of 2 inch strips from my "string" bin......

This is the update on the previous stash busting post......
I've gone thru 5 yards so far of background fabric and I can't even say how many 2 inch strips......

I've copied this project from Rita Hodge of the famous "Red Pepper Quilts" blog.  That girl makes scrappy look awesome!   If you've never visited her blog, you need to head over when you finish reading this.....she's wonderful!

I have the bottom unit to finish so I'm off to start assembling some units.....
I'd like to finish this week so I can start something new :)

Sew My Stash

My 2016 mantra was "Sew My Stash".........and believe it or not, i'm actually following thru and I can see some empty project bins, empty baskets and piles going down.  I will admit to purchasing some kits and yardage, i'm still human after all, but I made the decision to NOT shop for the 2nd half of the year if I can avoid it :)

I spent most of April and May sewing up baby quilts for all the new babies that are coming this year, both family and friends.  I sat and made a list for the 2nd half of the year of more projects and lucky for me, it's a short list.  

The first project on my list is a housewarming gift for one of my daughter's best friends.  She's been thru a lot the last 3 years but has landed on her feet and moved out of her family house this weekend. The move happened really fast so I didn't have time to plan ahead but never fear....I have a headful of ideas.   I'm using a black on white little tiny square for the background fabric and then pulling 2 inch strips from my "string bin" to make a very scrappy rectangle strip quilt....

I did all of the strip sewing and sub cutting one afternoon and then the next day I had the opportunity to sew, I started making 16 patch units.  I just kept throwing them up on the design wall and the last picture shows what I've got going now.  It measures about 65-1/2 inches wide by 37 inches which is about 1/3 of what I want it to finish at so I've got a whole LOT of more work to do.......
I'm going to work on this as my June Leader/Ender project so with luck i'm done mid July.

The LAST project I  bought before I decided not to shop for the 2nd half of the year is "SWISS" by Bonnie & Camille.......

I buy a LOT of my quilt kits from the girls over at Sewlux Fabrics on Etsy....She packages everything up so cute that you just can't wait for the next project to show up in your mailbox.

SWISS uses 12 red fat quarters with 1-1/4 yards of a solid white....It finishes at 56 X 64 and will be PERFECT for ME for my TV watching at night :)  Anyone that knows me KNOWS how much I love red.   I've got it all cut up and last night while watching Outlander, I got the 6-1/2 inch white strips sewn to the little red sides!!!  It's going to be a quick finish I think!  
The only thing I'm throwing around in the back of my head is making 1 of the PLUS blocks red just to add a little "something" to it and give it a little "Peggy Touch".......I'll keep you posted.

Well, since it's a pretty ugly day here I think I'll spend it in my room making blocks....anyone out there joining me?