Feeling Better and a small project

I'm feeling much better than I did last week this time.

I didn't get a lot done this week but yesterday afternoon I found a small project kind of buried on my sewing counter and since it was a friend's project I thought I better get it done.

One of the girls that works in a different building than me asked me if I could sandwich and quilt a small crib quilt that she'd embroidered. It was really quite easy since the lines for quilting were already drawn on and they were all straight lines so I pinned like crazy and then did the quilting.

I didn't tack down the binding because Marilyn, the owner said she could do that herself. The backing is a cute green and white gingham check and with the leftover fabric I made binding. I'll deliver it off to her tomorrow. I hope she likes it!

Peggy

I have a finish for the 2010 Challenge

I've been sick for the last 3 days and believe me when I tell you, I haven't done much else except take cold meds, switch the tv channels and sleep. I've missed 2 days at work, which is totally unheard of for me and haven't been in my sewing room for 3 days!!! I made the decision this morning that I'd make the effort to shower, get dressed, strip the darn bed of the sick sheets and do something.

After lunch I felt good enough to go into my sewing room. Last week I was working on a bag of star blocks that were part of the Finish er Up Challenge with my friends at Backporch Friends.

I'd set the blocks in a simple sashing and cornerstone layout and had even gotten a neutral border around it when I got sick. Since the final border was already cut it was easy to just pin them on and sew em up this afternoon so here's the finished project. I've had these blocks in a baggie on the shelf for probably 5 years, and what's crazy is once I pulled them out and decided on a layout, they went together in about 2 days! It finished up to 84-1/2 X 67-1/2, which is a decent size top for throwing over a single bed.

Now to get it quilted and crossed off my list!

Now to go look at the list and see what I can work on next.

I WON!!!

I won a blog giveaway last week on Auntie's Quaint Quilts blog. 6 Heather Mulder fat quarters, a pair of embroidery scissors and a cute little measuring tape. Can you see the little tape measure? It's rolled and wrapped up like a little piece of candy. Christine also sent a postcard of The Big Penguin down there in Tasmania...

I love the fabrics abd scissors...thank you Christine.

Coins

I've only made 1 coin quilt but I really enjoyed making it so I've started collecting some brights and kiddie prints so I could make a few more. I wasn't in the mood to sit at the sewing machine tonight after dinner so I pulled out some of the fabrics, pressed them and started cutting.

It is absolutely amazing how many 2.5 X 5.5 inch coins you can get from a few fat quarters!!!

I have some dots, stripes, Laurel Burch animals, balloons, dogs, cats etc. and what is absolutely even more amazing is that I barely made a dent in the basket of fabrics that I've been collecting!!

Valentine Runner

I found a really cute runner pattern and fabrics at my local shop, Quilting Possibilities so I cut it out last night and got the majority of it sewn but I just couldn't finish so tonight after dinner I got the binding sewn on and I just spent an hour and tacked it down. Isn't it the cutest runner? I made it for my daughter's coffee table in her apt. It was really quite simple. You quilt as you go with the strips then you buttonhole stitch the 6 hearts and pop the binding on and voile...you have a super cute, super simple valentine decoration. Now to put my thinking cap on for St. Patricks Day!!!

Peggy

Snack Quilt Done

I finally finished assembling the last 5 rows of the Snack Quilt tonight and got the border on. I was going to add a 1-1/2 inch gold border first and then add the pretzel border but I couldn't find the "perfect" gold in my stash so I went without it. I think it looks good without it and frankly, it's big enough without it. Here's a picture of my snack quilt with a picture of Michelle's that she made early in 2009.

UFO Challenge 2010

Every year someone in one of the Yahoo quilt groups that I belong to runs a UFO Challenge. It's supposed to help you "finish em up". You can send the hostess only 15 projects, but they must be bags o blocks, a finished top that needs quilting and binding or in some sort of "in the process" condition. Heaven knows I have a lot of each so I joined again this year. I have 3 large quilts on the list, the snack quilt on the most previous post has to have the rows finished then assembled and borders put on, the black/white/turquoise quilt needs quilting and binding and the Fig Tree quilt needs quilting and binding soI will only have 12 projects on the list because on top of the 3 large quilts, I picked 3 bags of blocks projects that I have no idea what I'll do with them to begin with so I knew I should stick with 3 large quilts, 3 bags of blocks and then the other 6 smaller projects.

Here's a basket in my sewing room with 9 of the projects all folded up real nice with all their parts in ziploc baggies....These 4 pictures are some of the projects that are in the basket.

I really love doing these challenges because it gets me off my duff and into the challenge mode, something I need every once in a while.

Peggy

Can We PLEASE have another blizzard tonight?

Can we PLEASE?????? I don't want to go back to work tomorrow, I'm having too much fun :)

I don't think that's gonna happen so I guess I gotta set that darn alarm clock and head to bed at a decent hour tonight...that makes me sad :(

So, today I spent the early part of the day getting my youngest packed up and headed back to college and then I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting strips for a yellow brick road quilt. I'm using all different food fat quarters that I've had in my stash it seems like forever. Again, I have no clue who it will be for but I'm sure someone will snatch it up. I didn't have anyone in mind for the Thimbleberries flannel one I did a while back but when I was trying to figure out what to get my daughter's boyfriend for Christmas I thought he might like it so I wrapped it up and gave it to him. He LOVED it...kept walking around her apartment with it wrapped around him. It's always nice to give a gift that is well received!!!

Ok, so I better go clean up and get ready for work...See you all tomorrow.

Peggy

Here's the first 3 rows (not connected to one another, just made up)

The First Finish for 2010

YAY, I have my first finish for 2010 and it's still January 1st. I love these Fig Tree fabrics and love how this quilt finished up. I didn't get the backing for it at the time I got the kit so I had to order it, but I think it will be here tomorrow or Monday, then I can get it quilted and ready for the lucky recipient...whoever that might be.

Robin is doing this quarterly project as well and we've been cheering one another on, but she stopped for a few days to do a little list making of all her unfinished projects, but I think she'll get back to it today or tomorrow.

Do you quilters keep a list of UFO's, bags of blocks, block of the months, etc? I never used to but a few years ago Robin, Michelle, and I started to do it and we called it our OBSCENE INVENTORY LIST. I would not DARE show anyone what my list looks like because it's not only obscene, but it's embarrasing. Embarrasing because I am like one of those people on that show "HOARDERS"...every nook and cranny in my sewing room is filled with fabric, blocks, kits etc...
Anyhow, how's your obscene list look???
Peggy

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to EVERYONE!!! Since the 3 kids were all going out last night hubby and I went out to dinner, which was delish and then headed to the movies. It's always such a surprise to see just how many people actually do go to the movies on New Years Eve instead of partying. We saw "AVATAR", which was ok...Should have gone to Blind Side, which was my first choice but I left Al on line to purchase the tickets while I visited the ladies room so he picked. I am curious to see other people's reaction to the movie now.

We took the lights down from outside the house, took the ornies off the tree and I took some of the house decorations down, not all, just some. I'll finish putting the house back to normal tomorrow.

Sarah goes back to college Sunday morning so I'm wrapping up a load of her laundry and sewing, and making some nice progress on the CobbleStones quilt top. The bottom row is just placed next to the one above it right now but that will get sewn on soon. 2 more rows of lattice and 1 more row of blocks and the center part is done. It gets a thin border of a darker pinkish red next then a wide tan print border. I still don't have a person in mind for this one so it will just get quilted and set aside until the "right" person comes along.

Peggy

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