Shameless Plug

I can't help myself...I'm putting in a shameless plug for my daughter as she embarks on a new adventure. She's been a hairdresser for almost 7 years and recently moved to Maryland to start her career down there. She's been at a salon in Canton, Md but business wasn't so hot so she is moving to a new salon that is closer to home and also with a more "family type" atmosphere.

This is a link to her new salon: http://poshhairstudio.com/ .

This is Jen hard at work!

Feel free to call the salon and ask for Jen Aront...you won't be sorry, she is a fabulous hairstylist!

Only in New York

Only in New York do you see these huge skyscrapers next to signs with zippers and buttons................................ I did see the huge button with the needle down in the garment district but with so many of us walking and looking all different directions I didn't want to stray and end up being left behind :)

We did see a Michael Jackson lookalike singer with his backup band and singers dancing outside a bank I think it was by the HERSHEY store, but we were anxious to get to "CARMINES" for dinner (sorry, no foodie pictures) and then to Madison Square Garden to see Elton John.

The show was good...heard a bunch of the oldies but goodies but also heard some new songs from the new album with Leon Russell and also a guest appearance by Gregg Allman. Neither of the guests are favorites of mine but as they say "when in Rome"....so I sat and listened and actually enjoyed the Leon Russell stuff! Who knew? LOL

Not a great picture of Elton, but trust me, that was him :) A nice time was had by all, especially after 2 large pitchers of sangria...enough said !!!

National Quilting Day Project

Here is a picture of what I did on National Quilting Day. I am going to retreat with a bunch of friends in May and we not only bring our own projects to work on, we bring a charity quilt for a women's shelter. We typically donate a dozen or more depending on how productive we are leading up to the retreat.

This year, I took a bunch of 30's blocks from an online swap I did probably 4-5 years ago, added a red print border, used a yellow and white square backing that I pieced from my stash and then I used the leftover backing fabric for binding...did a LOTTA stash busting for this.

I've never been able to master meandering but I do like to do cross hatching on my small projects but this one was bigger than usual and I got tired of doing it so you'll notice I only went one direction....which, in person looks pretty cool!

It finished up to 41-1/2 by 56, which will make a really nice lovey for some little girl at the shelter......

Today i'm not going to be able to do to

o much sewing.....hubby got 6 Elton John tickets for Madison Square Garden so him and I, his brother from Florida (ye

s, he flew up for the concert), my youngest daughter (she drove down from Rhode Island on Friday) and my oldest daughter and her boyfriend (they drove up from Maryland) are going. We'll h

ave dinner at Carmine's in NYC first then walk over to the Garden!!!

Full report tomorrow.....

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Peggy

Are you quilting today? I am!! I'm working on a charity quilt for a retreat i'm attending in May...

What are you working on?

Peggy

Red Pepper Quilt

The Red Pepper Quilt is done and the backing is bought....just need to piece it and mail it off to the quilter. It's mighty big right now so I'm not going to add any borders to it. Just quilt and bind.

Update

This is considered Section 11 for this project. I seriously feel like I've mastered the half square triangle thing!!!

These are the blocks I have so far. Of course I can't assemble the units because they didn't have you make the blocks in order.......no, that might have been too easy. So, I have to wait till I cut the next pamphlet out. Guess it's onto the next project for now...........................

PS:: YES, for you eagle eye people, the bottom unit is upside down, but I'm not putting the blocks back out for another picture :)

I'm on a roll

I'm on a roll finishing up this month's project booklet.............Here's the house with the 2 blue pinwheels.

I have to tell you, I love how Lynette Jensen has you make the chimney and the background unit!

Hometown Christmas Update

Yes, I'm still working on this one...keeping to the schedule Michelle has us on (and I only needed 1 reminder that it was time to start the next r

ound :)

We finished Booklet 1 last month. Booklet 2 has 3 units in it too....

The color is way off on this picture! The sky is blue and the fence is tan and gold :)

Once I finish Section 3 and 11 (no, they don't have you sew in order) I will take a picture of what I have so far.....

Florida was fun last week. Spent 3 days in Naples with my family and then hubby, Sarah and I drove to Orlando for 3 days and spent an evening with his brother and a friend. That was nice too because we ate in Epcot in China and then stepped outside and got to see the awesome fireworks they put on. I tried taking pictures but they turned out awful!

It was back to work on Monday and then the onslaught of the nasty weather here in NJ. I'm thankful that we live in the southern portion of the state and far, far away from the flooding of Northern NJ.

Prayers go out for the people in Japan who have the earthquake and Tsunami to deal with.

Starry Night

The newest block of the month I'm doing is called "Starry Night". It calls for solid black and Kaffee Fassett bright fabrics. I did blocks 1 and 2 today so I'm up to date for when my newest one comes later in the week. I love the orange and blueish/purple fabric so far the best.

I've never used any of the Kaffee fabrics but I do like the combination of the black and bright so I think once I get all the blocks that I will like them.....

I'm Back

You probably haven't missed me at all but I'm back from a week in Florida!

Had a great time visiting with family, working thru some mini crisises (sp?) and then spent a couple of days in Disney visiting Epcot, Universal Studios and MGM (I know it has a new name, I just can't think right now).

Had some packies waiting for me and my Snow Days BOM kit.....

Gotta get crackin with emptying the suitcase and get the laundry started.

Hopefully will be back with some pictures this week.

Peggy~

Cupcakes

I'm going to set the record straight off...I can bake brownies and cupcakes, I CANNOT however decorate said cupcakes :)

I did decide that I'd take a cupcake class today after school with one of the teachers who makes terriffic baked goods.

Here are my sunflower cupcakes with oreo centers and red M&M ladybugs. Not a bad job for someone who doesn't like nor does a good job of decorating....

A UFO Finish or so I thought

I really am trying to clean up some old UFO's and not start on new projects....So, I have been putting binding on finished quilts and at night instead of doing my Snow Days embroidery, I'm tacking down binding. This quilt called Meadowsweet is a duplicate of one I made back in May. The original I gave to the social worker in school when she had a fire in her house but since I loved it so much and had some leftover fabrics I remade it and got the polka dot binding on last night. WELL, guess what ? This quilt was NOT on my UFO list! How the heck did that happen??? Oh well, it feels good to have it finished and now I can move onto a real ufo project from the list. (better put my glasses on to be sure this time LOL)

Red Pepper

This is a scrap quilt I've been working on for some time. I do a little then set it aside and do more and then I pick it up again like I did yesterday. It's on my 2011 UFO list so I need to start "finishing" not setting it aside.

I've temporarily named this monster "Red Pepper" because I kind of stole the idea from the Red Pepper blog and a quilt she did last year. I may have to keep the name and make a label with a red pepper on it :)

All of the fabric has come from my stash of scraps and lemme tell you, this girl does NOT like working with 2 inch squares. I find them too small and unlike at least a 3 or 3.5 incher, they just get wonky to me. The blocks that are the little squares take 100 2 inchers to make up, so you can figure out i'm doing a lot of "holy crapping" while I'm connecting them all :)

It will be approximately 75 x 75 without borders so I'm thinking that will be it.....no borders for this one!!!

Catching Up

Yes, I'm catching up with all my monthly commitments!!!

I did the monthly minis yesterday, and even got myself ahead of schedule, i'm catching up on my embroidery project "Snow Days" and today I pulled out booklet #1 of the "Hometown Christmas" and caught up with that. The deadline Michelle has us on has us finishing #1 by 2/28 so I'm on schedule.

Here's what we had to do........

The birds gave me a little bit of a fit but once I got them laid out they went together nice and easy and do look super cute don't they?

I'm having some computer issues today with my comma, question mark etc...I dusted underneath but they're still not working right....any ideas?

Count On It

"Count on It" is the new Art to Heart book by Nancy Halvorsen. Initially when I saw the book I didn't think it was for me so instead I signed up for the "Patchabilities, Inc." minis with my local quilt shop. Soon after that I saw that Michelle got the book and did the January snowman and I was jealous. YES, I said it, I was jealous. The snowman was so darn cute! So, I got the book and while Michelle and Robin were here last month shopping, Michelle and I scoured the shelves looking for like-fabrics to the ones in the book and got quite a few. I got my mother a hanger and started making her the mini quilts...which she loves. I've mailed February's off to her a while back but thought that since I'm flying down to see her on the 27th that I'd take her March, April & May.

I love how these look so I know she will too.....

I have hanging sleeves on the March and April, but the May block still needs the machine buttonholing and the hanging sleeve. That's my job for later today. For now, I need to go cut out my March Daffodils for "my" Patchabilities mini.

Happy Friday

Yes, it is a happy Friday here in NJ. No work, it's 63 and sunny and I finished another quilt.

I blogged about the Buckeye Blocks last week and showed a picture of them laying on the floor, but I didn't have enough blocks to finish it so I set to work this week making more blocks, laying them back out on the floor to see if I liked how they looked and then I sewed them into rows. Last night I got the rows assembled and the neutral border around the entire top. This afternoon after errands and lunch I got the red border on and pictures taken.

I am very happy with how this top came together. I didn't have to trim or fudge any blocks whatsoever. I just laid em out and sewed em up....Here's a picture of the finished top laying on my design floor :) Sure wish I had a design wall but since that's not happening anytime soon I will settle for the floor.

President's Weekend

Yes folks, when that bell rang at 3:00 I was out the door today and won't have to go back till Tuesday morning at 7am....Let President's Weekend begin!!! Thank you Abe and George and all the president's that followed you!!!

Blog Winner

I won, I won!!! Back on February 4th I entered a blog contest and won 2 spools of Essentials Thread. I got to pick my colors so I picked "Hyacinth and Lime" 2 of my favorite colors!

I want to thank LOFT CREATIONS for hosting the contest and Connecting Threads for supplying the beautiful thread colors...

I would also like to thank my friend Angela for finding the little chairs I was looking for in the last post. I swear I googled every word combination I could and did not come across them. Bloggers are just the BEST!!!!!!!

Peggy

A pincushion and 2 Lookies

Have you seen this pincushion on "Bee in my Bonnet" blog? I think everyone who saw this fell in love with it. I wrote to Bee and asked her where she found the little chairs and she told me but she also warned me that she's gone in search of them again too and couldn't find any more :(

I've been searching since probably November for them thinking that this time of year the Michaels stores and other craft supply places would have them....but no, none to be found.

If anyone out there in blogland sees these cute little chairs, would you email me? Thanks.....

I have a list...........Actually, I have a lot of lists. I make a list the first of every month of "The Top 3" items that I'd like to work on. I have a list of "2011 Quilting Goals", I have a "UFO Challenge List" and I even, if you can believe it, have a list of all kits, bag o blocks, ufo's, BOM's etc...yes, everything I buy and store away I list. I love lists! List making however, only works in my sewing room...I don't make lists for anything else.

So...The first few days of the month I'm all about what I

have to do and I'm pretty much focused....then I get an email or a

text "LOOKIE". I groan just a little bit and wonder to myself "what is Robin or Michelle sending me now". This week was no exception, and it was only 6 days into the month!!! Michelle had gone looking thru her UFO list and found she had some Buckeye Beauty blocks on her list and laid hers out and sent a picture of how nice they looked laid out on her design floor. I said to myself "Self..you have those blocks too!" and the search was on. I did find my bag o blocks and laid mine out on my design floor and then I proceeded to pull together all the parts that were in the bag with the already made up blocks

so now i'm on a roll and assembling my Buckeyes too.

THEN Michelle got invited to a mini retreat about

an hour from home and was told to bring some 1-1/2 inch scraps with her. And today, not 4 days after the other LOOKIE email what do I get today? another email with a picture of what she did this afternoon with herscraps and some fancy

schmancy pineapple ruler. And to add to it, she is buying Robin and I a ruler and told us about a book we HAVE to get to go with it... AYE CARUMBA!!! These "sisters" of mine are supposed to be helping me finish up what I already have started NOT get me involved in new projects...

I guess I will just have to quit my day job and stay home and sew, that's all a sister can do when challenged with new and very interesting projects.

I'll get back to you on what hubby has to say about that tidbit :)

Peggy

Hunky Dory

Everything here is just Hunky Dory and I'm happy about that :)

I had a request back before the holidays from a teacher in school for a quilt for her daughter's high school graduation. I've known Kathy's daughter for at least 6 years and was thrilled to be asked to make such a special quilt. I gave her some pattern and fabric options and she picked " Square City" which was designed by Julie Herman. The pattern was in the May/June 2010 Mc Calls Quilting Magazine and she made hers in Hunky Dory by Chez Moi, so you know I had to do Kathy's in the exact colorway. I collected everything up and it's been sitting waiting for the perfect time...and today was the day.

I worked on the block assembly this afternoon and then after dinner I decided I had to get the rows assembled before I went to bed. Well, that happened but I just couldn't bear to go to bed with the rows laying over the ironing board so I got them all connected and ironed flat....NOW I can go to bed. I absolutely love how it came out and I'm hoping Kathy's daughter will too.

Now to get the backing done and off to the quilter this week.

Hometown Christmas

I was so successful in finding Michelle her Hometown Christmas kit and I knew I'd be seeing her this Saturday, I went ahead and cut out the fabrics for pamphlet # 1 and you know I couldn't cut it out without taking them for a test drive so I assembled Section 1. I assembled the house on Sunday and then tonight I connected the pinwheel and the hourglass blocks.

I will get to assembling and connecting the other 2 sections over the next week or so.

It was nice having today off and I don't mean to sound greedy, but I'd sure love to have a delayed opening tomorrow.....

Peggy

I think the picture speaks for itself

HELP

Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again, quilters are the best!!!

I posted for the Hometown Christmas Quilt kit and within minutes of posting I had an email from a girl saying she'd post on her Thimbleberries group and within a few hours I had 2 replies.

One girl had some of the fabric but the other girl has the entire kit, including the applique yardage. The best thing about it is she also lives in New Jersey and less than an hour north of me. We are trying to set up a day and time to meet and do the exchange. I'd have gone up while I was out if I could have arranged it but she apparently has a life and doesn't "live" with her email attached to her hip LOL I'm hoping we can meet tomorrow so I can have it in my hot little hands faster......

Thank you out there to anyone that responded and emailed me. You are really the best!!!!

Peggy

HELP

If you email me about this project, please set your email so I can reply. I've received 2 emails and they are both set for no reply....

Hometown Christmas HELP!

I know there are a lot of people that read blogs but don't comment on them. I read a lot myself but don't always feel the need to email the blogger. So, that being said, I was wondering if anyone out there that has a Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas kit or some of the fabrics????? If you do, would you email me? A whole kit would be fabulous....some of the fabrics would help.

paront1222@comcast.net

Thanks.....

Peggy

Berry Pickin Update

I've been plugging away working on some UFO projects, the Berry Pickin embroidery project was on the top of my list...I've been working on it now for 17 months! YES, 17 months, and I'm tired of seeing it sitting on the shelf.

I got the blocks out today, made some borders and started to connect them. This is only one section but I have other units made...unfortunately, the block I need to connect them all is waiting to be assembled so I'm showing what I have for now. Maybe this time next week I'll have the entire thing done and ready for quilting....

Hometown Christmas

Has anyone made their quilt from this pattern?

I bought this kit in 2004!!!! I hadn't even opened the package until recently, and even then I just washed them and put them in a basket on the shelf.

I got a nudge yesterday from Robin who found her kit while moving stuff around in her sewing room, who in turn told me I should email Michelle and see if she wanted to join in on the fun, and of course she said yes....She's had the patterns forever and wanted to do this so now Michelle has to collect up the proper fabrics and get organized so she can join us.

I think we'll do it like a BOM so we can continue to do other monthly committments and keep up with our 2011 UFO list as well.

Does anyone out there have a kit of this project or some of the fabrics? Want to swap for something else I might have so we can hook Michelle up?????

Peggy

Humility Block?

Someone noticed that one of my corner hst's was turned and asked if I was going to keep it as a humility block? Ummmm, not this early in the game, especially since nothing is connected to it and it is on the corner....so, here it is all fixed:

Aunt Grace Circle of Friends- Month 3

FINALLY....took all afternoon to make this block but I'm done and all caught up. The gees in this 10-1/2 inch block are 1-1/2 inch wide so rather than mess it up, I had Robin make me a paper piecing pattern for the geese units, which made this block much easier to make and assemble. Thank you Robin!!! Now to move onto something else.

Aunt Grace Circle of Friends

I thought these blocks would go together so quick...... ha ha ha!

I guess if I had my half square triangles going the correct direction and I paid attention to what I was sewing instead of the TV I'd have gotten them done right. As it is, I spent close to an hour ripping apart the red/print borders and redoing them....But I did it so I'm done with the December blocks. January is only 1 block so I should be able to get that done fairly easy tomorrow. For now, it's bed time....Goodnight!